Don't Forget
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Sometimes, it's not a fresh start you need, but just a restart from the beginning. - Set in the Remember Me series.
1. Chapter 1

"W-Well," the typically timid teenage girl tried to approach her typically ferocious father, "I've never really been on vacation before."

Spring was just beginning to flutter through the blinds of the tiny Dreyar house that day, no dark clouds or threats of frigid temperatures, but rather a gentle breeze that rattled the shutters just oh so noticeably for the slayer as he sat at the breakfast table, trying hard not to growl at his youngest daughter.

He always had difficulties with containing himself, but he made a special effort in the case of Marin. It was more than just a soft spot for his baby and rather extended into, well, the fact that she was just so innocent and soft spoken that to take any sort of a tone with her would reflect poorly on anyone speak to her.

But she didn't feel so innocent, not really, to her father that day. Or at least her request wasn't.

"We have to," he argued instead of what he really wanted to dive into. "We have gone on vacation. As a family. We...well… Mira-"

"I don't think we have, Laxus," she sighed from the stove. Sighing down at the sizzling sausage, she poked at it some with a spatula before remarking, "You used to take Haven with you, on Master conferences, but-"

"Well, we'll go on one then," he snapped, justifying this as more of a harsh remark towards his unsupportive wife (if he entertained her delusions, he felt as if the least she could do was return the favor). "Me and you, Marin. And Mira."

"I'm okay, actually," Mira sighed again and ugh, he actually did glare at her then. She'd been pissy at him for months now and he was slowly beginning to feel the same way back towards her. "Dragon."

"W-Well, we can, Dad, of course," Marin was quick to take over, feeling the brewing fight that was her parents marriage by that point. "Me and you. But, um, I just… I really wanna go with Kai. And Erza. And-"

"You're not going anywhere that he's going," the man retorted simply and now he was getting short, just a bit, with his youngest. He didn't even let her begin to say his name. He snorted, reflectively, on the thought of it, trying hard not to glare as the girl stood before his seat, her blue eyes round and hands wrung. "You know that I don't even like you to hang around him, Marin."

"I know, Dad, but-"

"I was very nice, letting you help him get better after fuckin' up his body, but-"

"Language." Mira was scraping off the eggs then, onto a plate for her husband, but still manage to glance over her shoulder. "And honestly, Laxus, don't be so vile all the time."

"Vile?" He was enraged, rather. "He's the reason that Haven's out there doing who knows what. And you want Marin to just go off with him too?"

"You're," Mira countered as she dropped the plate with little ceremony before her husband, "the reason Haven's not here."

And as some of his sausage links rolled off the plate and into his lap, Laxus only returned the heavy glowering blues that far outmatched his daughter's, and they were going to fight. Marin could tell.. Her mother and father. The screaming and yelling kind that they got into when he hadn't had a drink yet (being so early, he hadn't the chance) and when her mother was so consumed with what she considered the loss of Haven (though honestly, Haven was hardly home before her excommunication anyways). Marin usually would find her way out by then, headed down to the hall where her parents wouldn't dare do more than angrily glare at one another from across the bar.

But if she left now, then her chance of going on the trip with her friend would be dashed and she really didn't want that. It was rare, honestly, for Marin to want much of anything, but she really did wish to accompany the boys and Erza. It didn't feel quite fair that, even so far away, Haven was still somehow ruining things for her.

"Haven," Marin whispered softly, only getting something close to glances from both her parents, "is the reasons she had to leave."

Thei felt sour, but avoided truths typically did, and Laxus only made a noise of annoyance in the back of his throat while, with a bit of a huff, Mirajane went back over to the stove. Marin blushed deeply over this, fearful of the repercussions, but her mother spoke before her father, ending things, it seemed.

"You can go, Marin," Mirajane said without glancing over at her while Laxus only preoccupied himself with angrily shove his fallen sausage links back up onto his plate. Sighing some, the girl's mother added, "It's your money and time. Make sure your schedule up at the hall is covered, though."

Oh, she would. And it was. Her money. She'd been working up at the hall for a good chunk of time now and, though she did have the occasional expense of her younger cousin's birthday present or holiday gifts for her family, Marin mostly saved her money. She ate most her meals at home or the bar and she and Kai pooled together most their earnings (his typically much more meager than hers), using the fact that, unlike their older siblings and friends who blew what they had from jobs immediately on whimsical attempts of fun, Marin and Kai were mostly blessed in their wholly unsocial lives. Marin worked most days, all day, and Kai liked to sit around and watch her do it while shirking his own responsibilities. They were young enough and lacked just enough drive for independence that their expenses were still covered by their guardians while pocketing the excess.

Only a few years back, it had been with the intention of one day buying a house together, just for them. Where they could get a dog and hide out from their annoying older siblings.

Now it was mostly habit. Like most else in their lives, honestly.

Still, Marin knew better than to give her father long to sulk on something. So she only kissed his cheek and hugged her mother goodbye before rushing down to the hall to both inform Kai of her parents' agreement as well as ask Kinana and her aunt if they would cover her schedule for a bit.

Both women had opened that morning, Lisanna yawning through it, but each were happy to agree for the girl. Her aunt did muse about how she'd convinced her father, but Marin wasn't quite sure she had and didn't have a good answer, honestly. Moreover, he'd just kind of given up.

It was becoming his default state as of late.

Marin found Kai very busy out behind the guildhall where her cousin Ajax, who'd accompanied his mother to work that day, was assisting him in some of the dirty, gritty aspects of landscaping. Ajax always enjoyed this aspect most of all, when they dug new holes in the garden beds, disturbing the dirt and worms and bugs and getting all gross and muddy. Kai, however, could only think of his future flowers, taking care with each he patted down into the ground, thankful for Mrs. Master's understanding in the guild's need to fund this venture.

Guild appearance, after all, was very important.

Plus...it gave him something to do other than scrub toilets.

When Marin joined the two guys out behind the hall, her cousin called a greeting over his shoulder, but Kai jumped right to his feet.

"What did your dad say?" he asked asked and, well, she couldn't help the grin that spread over her face. She honestly was still feeling rather down about her parents' spat, but at the same time...well… It was just nice to win some times.

"He said yes," she agreed and Kai bounced up, punching at the air. Grinning with all his teeth, he vowed simply, "This is gonna be the best thing ever."

And he truly felt as if it would. It was all he could talk about, anyways, for the next few days. Erza still had to return from her more recent job, before they went anywhere, and the time seemed to drag on, but the second she was home, Kai could hardly contain his excitement.

Ravan, on the other hand, was growing tired of his brother's fervor. Typical, but stronger now, somehow, as their styles clashed far too heavily in their slated return home. Kai was childish and silly, so he couldn't see any of the downsides or drawbacks in going back to Shadebay. But Ravan could. Oh, man, could he. Though he agreed, both with Erza's assertion that it was time and Kai's desire to just go, he also knew he'd been barred from returning. Told if he left, he wasn't to come back.

It had been nearly a decade and certainly was a hollow threat towards nothing more than a little boy, but it was something that stuck with him, every time he thought about returning home. Because man, sometimes...sometimes he thought about it a lot. When Erza was being impossible or Kai was being annoying. When Locke was had pummeled him too good or Haven was being illusive, the idea of just leaving them all, going back to where he belonged…

But he didn't belong there.

Did he?

In the many weeks since Erza had first decided that they would, eventually, venture out to the coast when Ravan was well once more, the teen had put much effort into his recovery. Discovery as well. As his body adjusted even more to the lacrima, he was finding that he had more than just additional magical energy coursing through his veins. No. New powers were awaiting his attention and, alone in the forest now, much as he'd been before the Master's oldest daughter had finally taken pity on him, he was rediscovering his love of solitude.

Loneliness and self-loathing were abound and abundant, but there was something in it. Being all alone. Each and every day. He'd lost a bit of himself, maybe, the more time that he spent around the others. Haven, Locke, and Navi. Even when they were annoying him (and they most always were), being around them so much almost made him...crave it more. The attention. The fighting. The...camaraderie, maybe. Is that what they all had together? It hadn't felt like it, at any point during, but now that it was all gone, really all gone, and Haven was off doing her own thing, never to return, and Locke more than just hated his guts, but literally wanted to bush his skull in every time they so much as glanced at one another while Navi was just...gone, in a different way than Haven, but perhaps just as jarring of one, well…

There had been times, after joys, when it was just the four of them, when they completed something, all of them, together, and they weren't his friends. Haven was his friend, maybe, and Locke was her stupid boyfriend, maybe he always had been in some capacity, and Navi was just the stupid girl they all put up with, but…

He could remember laughing with them. Behind his bandanna. Not always thinking Locke was so dumb, because he wasn't, not really. And Navi was timid and useless, but she could be endearing, at least. And she was good at carrying supplies and always tried to keep them all from ripping one another apart. And Haven...Haven…

Maybe they weren't his friends. Not in a true sense of the word. But in retrospect, they'd been something to him, and now none of them would even talk to him and it was harder than he thought it would be, to be the one being ignored, shut out, forgotten about, left behind, rather than the one doing all of that.

Still, as the long nights of winter faded away and dark, snowy afternoons out in the forest all alone gave way to bright, warm sunny hours, spent checking out his new powers and abilities, Ravan kinda felt, well, renewed.

He missed them. Haven, definitely, whether he could admit it aloud or not, but Locke and Navi too, kinda. But that was a closed chapter now. His lacrima made that a closed chapter now. He was always stronger than Navi, but even though Locke had physicality on him, Ravan knew for certain now, he was one upped on him, magically, and could take the other guy out with ease. As for Haven, well, if they ran into one another, one day, out there in the great expanse of Magnolia...he'd love to throw down with her, truly, to see where they both stood now.

Ravan was going to be a new person. He _was_ a new person. Currently. His lacrima made sure of that. Whatever he'd been before, who he'd been before, was gone. He wasn't going to sulk around with Haven, tussle with Locke, or leer in aggravation at Navi's very existence. None of that mattered anymore.

Incidio triggered a lot of bad, shitty things, but the fact he got his lacrima out of it, his new power, well, that was all that mattered.

So yes.

Fine.

He missed them.

All of them. All of it. Staying up late, out at the clubhouse. Shitting around different cities, smoking while listening to Locke and Haven argue. Instigating Haven and Locke arguing. Maybe, sort of purposely making Navi uncomfortable, just because the fact that she found him so odd was so annoying because he wasn't doing anything, but existing. But that was all part of it, wasn't it? None of them were really that great for one another. They all thought that they had all these special bonds and connections in their stupid little group, but all it took was Incidio and bam! It all went to shit.

They were closer than he'd admit, but never again. There were too many emotions, too many feelings, and even if there were some good ones, some good times, hidden in-between the awful, it was just better, he was sure, it would be better, at least, once he was completely severed from them.

Just like it had been when he buried Shadebay.

And now Erza was forcing him to go back there, to dredge all of that back up, under the pretense of closure, and he told himself that he was just doing it for Kai. His younger brother. It's why he told himself that he did a lot of things.

The only reason he stayed in Fairy Tail was for Kai's benefit. He hung around Haven, even before their truce, was because Kai was friends with her sister. Sticking around Erza's house, for all these years, becoming close to the woman, learning under her, was just because Kai needed him to. Kai needed him to do so many things and now Kai needed him to return home again, their real home, at least this once.

As he glared out at the passing scenery on the train, Ravan had himself wholly convinced that yes, this was certainly for no other reason other than he was a good big brother. He wasn't always the best, was never the one Kai deserved, but he did things like this. He had to do things like this. It was his job.

If he didn't look out for Kai, sacrifice for Kai, then who would?

Marin, maybe, as she sat on a different row than Ravan. She did glance over at the guy frequently, frowning some at the way he just loured out the window, bandanna hiding half his face and his hoodie hiding the rest. She felt bad for him, at least somewhat, because she seemed to be the only one worried about what he was feeling over the whole thing.

Dour, typically, no matter what, but Marin didn't really know a lot about what it would mean. To return to a place you grew up, no matter how long. She'd only ever lived in Magnolia, with all her family, in the same tiny house, with both her parents. Did it feel wrong then, to Ravan and Kai, when she wept in the day Haven left? Childish? Stupid? Unnecessary? When they'd been forced to give up their entire lives, their parents and loved ones, when they were so much younger.

Haven, essentially, just grew up and moved away.

But it was closest thing to loss Marin knew. Other than, maybe, her father's grandfather, who died when she was far too young to remember the man, she'd never lost someone. So she couldn't really connect to either of them on that level.

But Erza could. If she wanted. But since things settled after Ravan's New Year mishap, she and Ravan didn't seem to be speaking much. Things were back to normal, in a certain sense, but a new version of it. One Marin wasn't quite sure she understood just yet.

"It will be good for the boys," Erza assured Marin before they departed, the night before, when she slept over at the Scarlet house. They'd head out to the train early and it was just easier, for her to bunk there.

Ravan and Kai were busy in their room, the younger still packing as, regardless of his excitement, he'd neglected to do this the entire time, and the elder was taking time out of his busy life to shame him for it. But Marin sat in the kitchen with Erza, somewhat nervous, as she always was, when alone with the woman, but the swordswoman only smiled at her over their shared cups of tea and hummed some, her thoughts drifted somewhat from her boys and onto something else.

"Returning home, to where you came from, is quite the...rejuvenating experience for many," Erza had gone on that night as she stared across the table at Marin in what should have been a welcoming expression, but to the teen felt far too invasive. As she blushed down at her cup, the woman only insisted, "It awakens things. Dreams that you might not have known you had, when you were young. You've found that, recently, in your own way, yes? You told me, on the eve of the new year, that you wished to start this one anew, yes?"

"W-Well-"

"How goes it then? Your training?" The scarlet woman seemed rather intent, almost wanting something from Marin, but the girl just didn't know what. With Erza, she found she rarely did. "Is there any new...developments? Involving it? Perhaps….Ravan has mentioned something to you? That might prompt you to ask me something?"

"N-No," Marin answered honestly and Erza only sighed into her tea, disappointed, before glaring off in the direction of the hallway, where she could hear Ravan still berating his younger brother. But she said nothing more to Marin on the subject and she couldn't figure it out, Marin couldn't, what them going back to Shadebay and her training could have to do with one another, but, well, Erza's thoughts always seemed disjointed until her bright plan came together.

She sat with her and Kai, across from them, and didn't look over at where Ravan sulked alone. Not once. She was giving him the space he'd wanted while, of course, being around for the eventual fallout. But also...well… Erza was a bit concerned over what would be awaiting them in Shadebay. She'd written to the leader of their tiny village and received a warm letter in return, but also knew that, yes, they had been boys when they fled, but it hadn't been on good terms. At all. And they were young, too young to understand consequences of actions, but she also knew that sometimes tight-knit communities could be a bit, well, cult-ish in a certain sense. Closed off.

Erza didn't expect them to be welcomed back with the most open of arms, but she wanted it to be the case. She truly did. She wanted the boys to get a piece of themselves, their culture, maybe, even, back. She didn't have that. Would never get the chance. Her home had been razed to the ground and no one of importance was around to carry on it's legacy or meaning. The fact that the boys still not only had something to go back to, but someone to go back to, multiple someones, meant that she couldn't continue to keep them from it. Or continue to allow them to be kept from it.

So while she understood giving Ravan his space, was beginning to relinquish even more of the very little hold she had on him to begin with, she still had to be the one steering him. From a distance or directly, whether he had to be tricked into making the correct decision or not, she knew that she was the one responsible for him. She always had been. And Kai as well. So if she had to be the one to lead them back to the beginning, to take them there, by the hand, then fine. She'd do it.

She'd do anything for them.

And fine, maybe, when they got off that final train and she took that deep breath in of the fresh, crisp ocean air, she was doing it a bit for herself as well.

It smelled different, than the coast back at home, Marin thought. In Hargeon. Saltier, maybe, but twinged with something.

The town of the last train stop was still a bit walking distance from their destination and they all kinda expected Kai to either be super annoying the whole time, in his zeal, or perhaps even his whiny self, at the thought of physical exertion, but instead he shocked them all by falling silent, the further they walked, until none of the four of them were speaking. Just going along, Erza dragging her massive amount of baggage along behind her while Ravan and Kai shoulder theirs together now, walking beside one another, and he couldn't recall it. Kai couldn't. He thought he could. The path there. The way. Remember leaving it, all those years before, with Ravan. At least he had memories of it. But they felt false now and as he went in the reverse, none of it looked the same, how could it after so long, but at the same time, something familiar tugged at his chest. Something that had been missing and the salty air made his eyes sting, maybe, but he always teared up, over everything, and why should this be any different?

They saw it before they reached it, resting down in a cove as they stood at the end of a forest line, gazing down at all the villages that speckled the coastline, different now, of course, rebuilt and perhaps not even the same in any way, but it was there and had been theirs, once before, all they knew, and now…

Marin thought it looked beautiful, as she caught her breath, because Kai had rushed, just a bit, at the end, while holding her hand, tugging her along, but he came to a stop at the edge of the overhang they were standing before, looking down at all that laid before them, the huts and homes, the trees and villages, and you could see them, the boats spotting the coastline, and hear it, all of it, from the water to the birds to the people, all the people, their people. His people.

He squeezed her hand as he grinned down at Marin, Kai did, and she returned it easily while Ravan, stopping just behind him, only reached up to adjust his bandanna and hike his back further up on his shoulder, feeling no more relief to see the crystal water ebb and flow, in and out, over the sands he'd spent so many forgotten years.

"Come." Erza clapped Ravan on the shoulder heartily and when he looked to her, she was grinning, but he couldn't return it, beneath his bandanna. Just stare at hers as the woman added, "They are awaiting us."

It felt like a dream, maybe, to Kai, and eventually, he let go of Marin's hand entirely, not tugging her along, but rushing on ahead for once, without her. He could remember it now, all of it, running through this same area, this same sand, all the way back home. And the layout was all different now, everything was different now, but that was okay, for it to be different. Because he was different.

But he'd forgotten, Kai had, and perhaps Ravan as well, just how different he was now.

He found himself coming to a stop eventually, Kai did, almost automatically, when he got closer to where the homes and things were, in land a bit, and people were staring some while he just laughed, tossing a hand behind his head, realizing how silly it probably looked, how touristy, how outsider like, running all crazy, but Erza had told them they were coming. On that day. Which might have been why it was so easy for someone, someone he didn't recognize at all, no matter how hard he tried, to call him by a name he hadn't heard since...since he'd left.

"Benny?"

A man approached him, his head tilted a bit, staring at Kai, who wasn't laughing any more as his shaggy hair fell into his eyes as the older man, who'd spoken his name, the forgotten one, the left behind one, came closer to him, away from where he'd been cleaning fish before, outside of his home, and over to where Kai stood, just on the cusp of the village. He could remember, Kai could, before, the pathways being little more than trails made from frequent use, but now, in the rebuild, it was a raised wooden walkway, zagging through the different buildings and home, and Kai took a step onto it as the man smiled openly at him.

"You...remember me," the man asked him, now with some hesitance as he held out a hand to him, maybe as a gesture towards a hug or handshake, "don't you?"

And he didn't. Before. At first. But slowly, just as quickly as they'd disappeared before, Kai felt the salt air prick his eyes again and he nodded, at the man, as he forewent the handshake and dove straight into the hug, the man laughing, just like how his father laughed, Kai could remember that, the big laugh his father had, and his cousin, the only one on his father's side, had the same one, he always had, and they would stay up all night, sometimes, with Ravan and the some of the other boys, skipping stones and playing around on the beach, and Kai had only just been starting to do it, before the attack, because he was still so young, but his mother made Ravan take him, and he could remember it all, he just had to be reminded, and he laughed too, not like his father, Kai didn't think, but more like his mother used to, but that was okay.

Everything was okay, as his cousin hugged him back and he could hear Ravan approach, along with Erza and Marin, just Kai just wanted to hug his cousin for a little while longer, to remember for a little while longer, because it felt so much better. Remembering.

It had been so long, since he was Ben, because that name was dumb and he hated it, because Ravan would always call him Ben, but then he'd say he meant bin, like what you threw trash in, and Kai would get really upset, and when Ravan renamed himself, he asked Jellal, he could remember, if he could be someone new too. But he didn't wanna be someone new, not in that moment. He wanted to be Benny again and he wanted it to be his father, who smelled like the ocean air and fish guts, but it was okay. He'd take what he could get.

"Hey, don't cry, huh?" His cousin laughed at him, but not mean-naturedly, not at all, as he released Kai and took a step back to look at him. "I… They said you were coming, but we all thought...this whole time..." And his eyes went passed Kai then, over to where Ravan stood still, behind his brother for once, the awkward one for once, as he looked away when the older guy tried to lock eyes with him.

"And Zach." He was moving passed Kai then, to make for Ravan, but the teen withdrew, just a bit and Erza picked up on this. Or at least seemed to, as she stepped in front of him, just a bit and that was who everyone was really staring at, Kai knew now.

"T-Titania," his cousin said then, taking a step back instead of another forwards, saving Ravan from the same handshake/hug internal debate Kai'd had with himself. Bowing his head to her then, the boys' cousin found it was her eyes he couldn't meet as he said, "Our leader thought to greet you at the station, but when you said you would find your own way, we thought for certain you would come through the cities and take a more than a day to get here."

"Ravan knew a shortcut," Erza said with a slight shrug.

"Ravan?"

But the man in question did little to ease his cousin's confusions, still looking away as Erza continued to take command of the situation, as she did all.

"I wish to meet this leader of yours," Erza remarked simply. "I assume-"

"Of course! He's probably already heard that you're here and heading this way." Raising his head, the man smiled at her brightly as he said, "You are always welcome here."

"Of course," she repeated as Kai bounced some, excitement swelling inside of him again, and this was it.

This was home.

But for all the joy Marin was finding them, albeit hidden behind a deep blush, for Kai, she found herself glancing up at Ravan much more in those moments, to judge his reaction. He seemed to have none. Not even as, the ice broken, more people, the older people in the village, who would still know them, began to come over, to greet them, and Kai was loving it, the attention and the memories, all flooding back, but his brother…

She smiled at him, Marin did, when Ravan hung back a bit. She did as well. Erza was drawing just as much attention as Kai as they were led through the village and though others tried to start to speak to her oldest apprentice, the woman seemed to ease the conversation away from him with little effort.

And when Ravan's hand fell, for just a moment, from where it had been folded across his chest, Marin brushed hers against it, not trying to hold it, the way Kai would want, if he were feeling so down, but just enough to get Ravan to glance down at her. And she knew, as she'd told him all those weeks ago, when he and his brother were bickering over the lacrima situation, that really, the two of them, him and her, they were nearly as close as Kai liked to think. Ravan was his brother and Marin was his sister, but that didn't meant the same went for the two of them. Ravan was nice to her, kind to her, and she liked to think of him as a friend, but was also reverent of the fact that, well, he also wasn't the kind of person to have many of those.

But she liked to think that it comforted him, at least a little, to know that as Kai fell back headfirst into the life Ravan had made certain they left in their past, that she at least recognized his hesitance. His reserve. She knew she didn't get it, didn't understand it, never would, she hoped, what it meant to have to confront your past in such a way, but, well…

Ravan wasn't her older brother. Not really. But he was a part of her life. And as he was about to go through yet another turbulent portion of his, she hoped that he at least took some comfort in the fact she was there for him. Even if only in appearance.

And he didn't grasp her hand, didn't say anything to her, pull his bandanna down and smile, but Ravan did nod at her, just a bit, as he scoped out his abandoned home and all the people he once knew.

Because it was nice, no matter what he'd admit or not, to have someone else there. With you. Who didn't sympathize, but empathized, and Marin was definitely Kai's friend, but yeah. Ravan thought that, maybe, in a weird way, she was kinda his too.

* * *

**Five short chapters. Gonna be a bit lighter than the other stories have, in a tone sense. No romance stuff either. Just Erza and the boys (plus Marin) goofing off and contemplating stuff. Some of my favorite one-shots from Remember Me are just Erza interacting with Kai and Ravan, so if you liked those too, then you'll enjoy this one. **


	2. Chapter 2

When he first settled into Magnolia, it was all Kai could think of, each and every day, the place he'd left behind.

He could remember the heat of the sun on his back as he played in the tide, looking for seashells and critters with the younger kids while his father and the men in the village went out with their nets, to fish. He could remember the cool nights, when his mother would lay him and his big brother down on the warm quilt and sing to them, softly, recollections of the sound helping him drift off, beside his brother still, in that shared bed in Erza's guest room. He could remember that time he got in big trouble, for finding where his father stashed his knives and accidentally cut himself, while playing with them. He could remember sitting with his cousins and friends, getting them all to laugh when he pressed his hands into the soft sand and make the ground shake, just a bit, because he was only just learning. He could remember climbing trees in the forest surrounding the beach, that time he swam too far out and one of the older men in the village had to save him. When his brother got real sick, once, and their mother wrapped him up in that quilt and just kept stroking his head as Papa smoked and paced.

Smoked and paced.

But he was so young back then. Too young, maybe. To keep the memories for long. And it wasn't his fault, really, because what took their place was so fantastical, how could he not keep those memories instead? Of arriving at the big gates of Fairy Tail, viewing the many different unique magics of the wizards inside. All the wonderful food the Master's wife would cook for him, still cooked for him, when she was up for it now, which wasn't as often, but that was okay because she was so kind to him. Because she understood. Maybe no one else did, but she did. The way he felt about her daughter.

Marin. She took up a lot of his early memories too.

Thoughts of the early morning tides were replaced with early mornings in the guildhall, sitting around with Marin, eating breakfast and giggling, a lot. The sound of his mother's singing was replaced, slowly, her voice all together, really, and now, when he felt real low and alone, he thought of Mrs. Master or Erza, and the way they both seemed to know how to calm him down. When he thought of his brother, he didn't think of Zachary, who used to shove his head in the sand and yell at him, for following him around so much, and spent his days snoozing away instead of helping out with the nets, but rather Ravan, who shoved his head into the wooden floors of the guildhall for pestering him too much, and spent his days flicking through comics in Erza's living room. Erza didn't scold him for getting into her weaponry; more often than not, she was pushing it off on him, to have it polished and cleaned. He had all the time in the world now, to learn magic, but he repressed it, neglected it, even thinking he'd lost the ability at times, maybe, as his times of using it were as void as the memories of first learning it, back on the beach nearly a decade prior.

He lost them. The memories of his home, his real home, where he'd been born and where he grew up. It was replaced by the home he found instead, where he might not have a mother and a father wholly, but he did have his brother still and a little sister now and somewhere caught between Erza and Mirajane, he was sure he had both the same life lessons a mother or a father would offer. But...still, there had always been something missing, maybe, even if he never realized it.

But he did then, as he was walking through his former village, and this was it. What was always absent. Phantom. He could feel it then, Kai could, all of it, not just coming back to him, but coursing through his body as well.

He was meant to be here.

He always had been.

He felt this immensely as they were led along, he, his brother, Erza, and Marin, further in-land, to a bit more put together building where the leader no doubt awaited them. As they went, he was peppered with questions from the few people still around that he knew while the others who followed them were far more interested in someone else. And no, it wasn't Ravan.

But oh, he was annoyed, Ravan was, with how Erza was immediately made over by everyone, everywhere, constantly, and ugh. Just ugh. She ate it up too, he knew that she did whether she admitted it or not. She modestly would just take the questions with nods and polite smiles, but oh, Erza loved every second someone was lavishing her with praise. He knew that her coming here would end up that way. With her being the returned hero, come to collect her dues.

Still...at the same time...it did keep him from having much asked of him. And he couldn't complain much about that.

Everyone fell away in what felt like a rather sudden action, almost cohesively as only their older cousin now, in the head, walked on to the door of the leader's homestead. He glanced over his shoulder at them, somehow managing to look Ravan right in the eyes before he reached out to shove the door open.

Kai had grabbed Marin's hand again, at some point, meaning that she was drug in immediately as the younger teen boy rushed forwards immediately and leaving Ravan with nothing to brush against his own, for reassurance. So he was forced to push passed the hesitance and bile rising in his stomach alone, as Erza followed right along without even a glance back at him.

The ceiling was too low, was the first gripe Ravan had as they stepped into the tiny building, while his brother and Marin both mused, silently in sync, about how Elf probably would have to hunch over. Kai noticed his cousin, even, doing so, just slightly, though his gaze was quickly captured by something else.

The near decade away he and his brother had taken had gifted not only them age, but also those left behind. And it showed heavily in the face of the man before them then. Kai only ever called him Leader, as a boy, and hardly remembered him, honestly. Just that he looked so much younger, or at least he thought he had. How hard had the years been back on the coast, to age him so much?

He rose though, the man did, from behind the desk he sat, a wry grin spreading across his grizzled face. He had a wicked beard, one Ravan didn't recall him having even a trace of years ago, and looked far beefier, more built, than in the days before. No doubt from assisting in the rebuild, as well as aiding in any further defenses following. Ravan had always made certain to keep up with absolutely nothing happening back on the coast, but he imagined a devastated area was prone to attacks from outside forces looking to take over.

"The great Titania Erza," the man remarked as his eyes only found her, no one else, a glint him then as his arms fell over his chest. "Should I bow? Or just offer my most sincerest of gratitude?"'

Erza had tensed a bit, on their arrival, but relaxed some then as she remarked, "Your words are plenty, I assure you."

"So humble," the man replied with a slight nod. "Too humble."

And Ravan couldn't help it.

Oh, man, on top of everything else that was running through his mind then, he really couldn't do some guy throwing himself at fucking Erza, feeding her dumb ego further. He snorted, loudly, and that was what finally did it. The man's eyes fell away from the woman and instead landed on him, softening some as he released a breath of his own.

"And the two of you."

He said this as he came around the desk now, coming over to Kai, who was the closest, and patting him roughly on the shoulders as the teen boy only grinned with all his teeth.

"I never imagined that you would find her, to begin with," the man was going on as he looked passed Kai, though he still gripped his shoulders, eyes falling to Ravan then, who stood by the door, looking uneasy and ready to depart at a moment's notice. Their leader took a breath then, before saying, "And to find out that you have...taken them in-"

"It was quite the undertaking," Erza remarked with her head held high and oh, man, Ravan wanted out of there so badly, damn, why did he even come, "but it was the only right choice at the time."

"Erza's been awesome!" Kai was quick to assure both their cousin and the leader of them. With a bright grin, he said, "We've learned so much from her. And we only spent, like, a week trying to kill her. Maybe."

"May," Erza agreed though this felt far less jovial, "be."

"Oh!" Kai shook free of the man then, but it was just to toss an arm around the very quiet and timid Marin, who blushed in response, but did offer something of a bow of her head when the teen said, "And this is Marin! She's Master Laxus' daughter. Laxus Dreyar. She's practically my sister."

Both his cousin and the leader exchanged looks then before the latter remarked, "To be taken in by two well-known mages, I-"

"Well, I dunno about taken in by Master, but-"

"Still," the man insisted, "you must be quite proficient in magic."

Kai blinked. "Well-"

"Kai is rather disappointing in that regard." Erza ignored the young teen's glares at this remark, figuring he should just be thankful she didn't explain he was actually disappointing in most. Turning, she nodded to Ravan then, finally, as she said, "His brother, however-"

"Yes." All eyes were on the older teen then, but it was only his former leader's that he found hard to avoid. Taking a step towards the boy, the man remarked, "From Titania's letter, I gather you have been quite accomplished while you were away, Zachary."

Ravan snorted beneath his bandanna, but this only caught him a glare from Erza. Deciding not to press the woman too harshly, he added, "Yeah, well."

He laughed then, their cousin did and it was enough to get one out of Kai also and for all the tension Ravan felt, none of the others seemed to have any. He'd built this all up, in his mind, for so long. What it would mean. To come home. And it just…

"I am certain there is much the boys wish to hear of from you as well." Erza took over the conversation with ease. "It must not have been easy, to rebuild what was left when they fled. In the grand scheme of things, you have done remarkably well to rebuild what you have in such a short amount of time."

"It was quite...difficult, I guess." He laughed then as well, somewhat more at ease when speaking on something he knew. Rubbing at the back of his neck, the man admitted, "We wound up absorbing two neighboring communities, given the low survival rate and were able to rebuild the village in a slightly different, more loose layout. I'm sure you two boys would like to look around-"

"Yeah!" Kai bounced, excited once again, it seemed, though he did take a second out to grin sheepishly over at Erza when she made a noise at this, no doubt disapproving of his theatrics. To his cousin, he questioned, "Do you think we could go around and see everyone? That's still living here?"

The older man tossed an arm in the air, much like his younger cousin as he remarked, "Most everyone, still. C'mon! We've waited forever for this."

This.

Their return.

Ravan doubted it. He imagined they thought they were dead. All these years. If they thought of them at all. He didn't blame anyone who didn't; he tried his hardest to keep them far from his thoughts as well. But as his brother happily drug Marin along, out of the building, he only frowned after them before considering his options. Erza was speaking once more with the village's leader, who was being non too sly on his approach and gross.

Of all the things that he wanted far away from then, that was by far the largest.

He managed to escape both though, the reunions and Erza's inability to ever realize when someone other than Jellal was flirting with her (and even then, only occasionally). Erza lingered, listening to the man explain the rebuild inside, while Kai took off, the second he got out of the building, rushing around to anyone he might know, and somehow, Ravan just kinda...faded away.

It took him a moment to realize (and panic over) the fact that this had occurred quite literally. He'd only faded out for less than a minute, he was certain, but it drained his magic immensely, not something he was accustomed to just yet, the feeling of loss overtaking him quickly and forcing him out of his trance. Luckily, his reappearance didn't seem noticed by anyone, as they all seemed to be gathering, out on the beach, where Kai was being led.

Ravan found himself heading in the opposite direction.

Rubbing a hand across his eyes, he found himself somewhat concerned that all it took was a deep desire now, to disappear, to trigger his newfound magic. He'd only just discovered it a week ago, when Kai noticed him fade before his eyes one night in their bedroom. They both freaked out, but Erza only grunted upon this discovering, citing that this, perhaps, is why you don't go around shoving unknown lacrimas inside yourself.

Kai, who thought it was super cool, decided it just might be why.

Being back on the coast, however, was doing Ravan's emotions no favors and now drained a bit, from his magic, he just wanted to find somewhere to be alone. For a minute. Or thirty. To regroup with himself and calm down some. His bandanna wasn't enough to hide behind and he needed to be alone.

This was fine by Kai, who found himself quite the center of attention. Honestly, a good number of the people he had known as a young boy had perished in the catastrophe, but a good number of the young kids he'd grown up with had survived, ranging from just about his age and then some slightly older than Ravan. He just felt so giddy though, for who he did see and recognize, and even the ones who he didn't, and he'd never been so welcomed before, ever, at all, in anything, and this was just so...so…

"Kai will not come back down from this moment for quite some time, I fear," Erza remarked as she didn't make the trek down to where the others gathered, down on the beach, but rather stayed back, at an overhang, staring down with the leader at what was transpiring. The man, who'd requested she refer to him as Alec, stood beside her, hands clasped behind his back as he considered her words.

"You," he finally found it fit to ask, "renamed them?"

"I what?"

"The boys. They… I noticed that you call them-"

"They renamed themselves. Children...do many things to cope."

"Such as running away from home. And never returning."

It was Erza's turn to consider though, eventually, she merely replied, "It is difficult to return unvictorious. And I assure you, Ravan never stood a chance."

"No." The man made a face though. "I never thought he did."

"It is him I worry about, in all of this," she admitted, faltering if only for a moment. Looking off, she said, "Ravan can be quite...sensitive."

"The older boy?" The man seemed surprised. "The younger seemed far more...expressive."

"Kai is dramatic, but will weather most things in his own time. It is what he excels in." If there was anything Erza could be certain of, it was this. "His brother, however, struggles with many things. I...might have tipped my hand a bit, forcing them into returning, but I am certain it will be for the best for both of them. It's good to remember where you came from."

It was good to remember where you belonged, Kai thought, down on the beach, and he forgot, so easily, all about any fears or qualms he had about returning home. This was his home now. It always had been. It was why he felt so called to fish and the water and never really fit in too well with the others back in Magnolia.

He was meant to be back on the coast, living out his real life.

"Oh, I'm pretty popular," he lied easily, or did he just misconstrue the truth, always, in his recollections, "back home. I eat dinner at Master Laxus' place nearly every night. Well, I did. Before we...we… We got in a fight! You should see the damage I did to his place."

And they all ate it up, even the people who he didn't know, didn't remember or had come to the village during his absence, because joining a wizards guild was the dream of many, but one as legendary as Fairy Tail? And to be so high up in it, so young?

Marin felt uncomfortable though, with Kai's new attitude and frowned a lot as he recounted, in fragments, just how good of terms he was on with the others in their guild. He was describing someone she didn't know and really didn't want to be pressured into vouching for, but this didn't seem to matter as Kai had very little to say about her. Which was for the best, maybe. She was fine with standing at his side, awkward but supportive, even when he was making quite the ass of himself.

Mostly, she feared that he was talking himself into something he couldn't back out of. The way he was hyping up his magic, well, not only was it dishonest, but it was also impossible to follow through on. It had been nearly a year, honestly, since Marin had even seen him attempt to toy around with any form of magic, whether it be involving his seeds or the ground.

But Kai handled this problem as he handled all of life's problem; by talking around them. At the suggestion of showing off a few spells, Kai tactfully navigated the conversation back towards the coast and, eventually wrangled himself into being invited out the following morning for some casting of nets.

It was Erza finally appearing that got Kai to stop his long winded tales and, honestly, Marin was quite glad for once. She was usually the first one to indulge Kai in his tall tales, but something about this was kind of rubbing her the wrong way.

Or…

Maybe she just missed home.

She felt kind of childish, acknowledging this chance, but she did very infrequently leave Magnolia, much less without any of her family. Her real family. An aunt or uncle, at least. While Marin had, in some way, always wanted to work in the confines of Fairy Tail and therefore rarely be forced to leave home.

When people thought her cowardly, they weren't too far off, maybe. For all the excitement she'd had over their adventure, she was here now and already felt a slight tug to return home.

Kai had none, as he explained to Erza then, with a slight shrug at her expense.

"I know you'll miss me," he sighed, "but I think I'm gonna just have to stay here forever now. Where I'm actually appreciated. I saw how Mrs. Master and the Master took Haven leaving, so I just want you to know, you can visit me any time. And just remember, I'm doing this for me, not to hurt you."

Erza, who saw no fear of this and knew, in the coming days, he'd feel much the same as Marin (he was quite the homebody as well), only stood with her arms folded over her chest, looking out over the seaside.

"Yes, well," she remarked with little concern. "We all must find our own way."

Kai dropped his jaw a bit in disappointment (no one ever cried over him and it was really unfair…), but Marin only patted at his back comfortingly while Erza set her sights on something new.

"Alec has invited us to have dinner with him tonight," Erza told the two of them.

"Who?" Kai asked with a frown as Marin only looked curiously up at the woman.

"Your...leader or whatever you call him," she replied with a frown. "Why play stupid?"

"I'm not playing," he informed her and Marin had to hide her expression in her palm. Still, Kai only beamed as he said, "You mean Leader Ruxe. I, uh, guess Alec is his actual name?"

"You mean," Marin asked softly, "you don't know?"

"I'm guess I'm just not as close to him as Erza." And then the snickering started. Burying them in his palms, Kai got out around them, "Is there, uh, something you wanna tell us?"

"Many things," Erza answered honestly. "But you so rarely take heed."

"I's meanin' more, you know, you comin' to stay on the coast too. Wtih me." Kai's cheeks turned red, but not out of embarrassment. Rather, excitement. It had been a good bit since he had something to hold over the woman's head. "Since you're all, uh, cozy with leader."

"I do not know what you imply-"

"I think you do, Erza," he challenged as Marin blushed as well, but less from oy like Kai and more inline with the typical reasoning.

Erza held none of this, however, and only continued to hold her head high as she questioned, "Where has your brother gotten off to anyhow? Exploring? Or something more?"

Deflating some when it was clear he wouldn't be played into, Kai only shrugged as he said, "Well, it's Ravan, so probably both."

"W-Well," Marin tried then with a frown, "it looked like he was getting kinda, well, um, overwhelmed, maybe? Before? So maybe he went off to clear his head."

"In any event, I wish for him to attend dinner as well," Erza remarked as she began to walk off. "The two of you can continue on as you were doing, if you wish, but I am off to find your brother. If you happen to see him, send him my way."

"But how will we know what way will be your way if you're going all sorts of ways because you're looking for what way he went?" Kai's hands dropped from covering his face so that he could scratch at his head. "You should really think about this sorta stuff, Erza, before you speak."

But as Marin watched the retreating woman's back, she only remarked to her friend, "Aren't you at least a little worried about Ravan? He seemed kinda upset."

"He's always upset." And Kai dropped his hands then, as well at his act. Making a face at Marin, he said, "Ravan always just wants attention. He's a big crybaby."

"U-Uh, Kai-"

"It's different when I want attention. I deserve it." He beamed at her then. "And besides, Ravan probably went off to check out all his old hiding places. He used to disappear a lot, when we were kids. So he could get outta work. There's a buncha caves further down the coast he used to hang out in. He's alright."

Marin wasn't so sure, but also knew it wasn't exactly her place to push the issue. Plus, though Erza's approach had caused those who were so interested in them to disperse some, Kai's cousin was back now, wanting to finish showing them around and, well, Kai did seem to wanna get a good look around the new structures.

Ravan, in that moment, wanted nothing to do with them though. The new structures and layout of their village wasn't that interesting to him, if at all. Instead, he walked along down the coastline until he was a bit separated from the village, caught in something of impasse to the next. He sat down there, alone in the sand, resting his head on his knees as he overlooked the water before him. Ebb and flow. In and out.

The tide would begin to rise soon enough and, if he were rooted in this exact position, he would be washed away. He couldn't deny how welcoming the thought felt then. He could hardly even track how long he'd been out there, watching the sun drift lower and lower in the sky. It was beginning to burn a dark orange and disappear beyond the endless waves before him.

Her armor sounded heavy and uncomfortable in the late evening heat as it clanked with each step as the woman made her approach towards him. Honestly, even without it Ravan figured he'd have known when the woman was approaching. A certain sense about such a thing. For all the weight Erza's armor added on herself, just the heavy gaze from the woman added much more on Ravan.

"Here you are," she called out when there were still a number of steps between them. "I've been looking for you, Ravan."

"Yeah, well," was all he grumbled against the fabric of his bandanna while only continuing to glare out at the water.

When Erza came to a stop beside him, she turned to face it as well, the waves. Stared hard out at them, thinking as well. Eventually, she did gently tap the toe of one boot against Ravan's side, as if requesting him to rise.

"Your leader, Alec, has invited us to have dinner with him tonight," she said simply. "Come. You should clean off before-"

"He's not my anything." Ravan didn't even glance up at her. "And he wouldn't care if I went or not."

"Come now. I thought this has all been cleared up now, hmm?" Erza was smiling then, he could hear it in her voice, but still refused to look at her. "I understand why you were so fearful to return here, as a child. You left in shame and assumed you were not allowed to return. But surely you see now how untrue this was. Your village accepts you with open arms. Do not reject this kindness."

But when Ravan still didn't respond, the woman merely sighed and took a seat as well, there in the sand beside him. This was annoying, as it always was whenever the woman tried to connect with him, but still, Ravan felt something heavy creeping up his throat then. Something he couldn't quite explain.

"This used to be where the homes started. This close to the water. They were built up, somewhat. So when the tide came in, it would pass beneath them." Ravan shut his yes then and he could almost see it. How it was. Almost. "This wasn't our village though. Right here wouldda been...two over. They used to be all together, a long time ago, my father told me once, but they got divide over different leaders and stupid shit like that. But it's...all different now."

"Yes," Erza hummed. "Mass causality will do that."

This did get Ravan to glance at her, something mixed between a glare and aghast, but the woman was being as serious as ever. Bowing her own head, she thought for a moment before speaking.

"I went to the tower once," she remarked, "Where I spent a good chunk of time as a child. You surely have heard the stories."

Literally every single one Erza could ever tell about herself, yes, Ravan had heard a thousand times over. Still, he felt too lowly to stew on the woman and only rolled his eyes some as he nodded.

"Yeah. The Tower of Heaven." He made a face at the name. "I know all about it."

"It was unpleasant. To return. Just...being in it's presence, subtracted from all the was going on, brought me much-"

"I wasn't a fucking slave here, you know," he complained, for some reason offended on the woman's behalf. "You don't gotta compare that to me coming here. It's not the same."

"It's not," she agreed. "But I didn't mean in that sense. I meant more… Sometimes it can be overwhelming. Our memories. Even good memories can bog someone down. But the bad… We can leave things in the past, Ravan, but you always must confront them again. Eventually. Or else they continue to torment you from the shadows. Use this time we have here to come to terms with anything you have been escaping from. The only way to overcome our pass it to confront it."

When he didn't respond, Erza found it just as well. Rising to her feet once more, she only held a hand out, down towards the teen before remarking, "Come now. Alec is expecting us."

That got Ravan's attention, but not his hand as he only shoved up on his own then to glare at her. Tugging down his bandanna, he remarked, "Are you really that stupid? Huh? You're leading him on."

"By accepting dinner from a host?" She rolled her eyes, turning to walk off then as she was certain he would follow. "You and your brother are both ridiculous."

"You're ridiculous," he retorted as, yes, he did fall in line behind her. "And you're not as oblivious as you try to pretend."

"I know not what you mean." It was her who was refusing to glance back at him then. "But you and your brother constantly involving yourselves in my affairs-"

"Yeah, it's us doing that and not the other way around." He stopped mid snort as he questioned instead, "Affairs, huh?"

"My business," she reiterated, "is none of your concern."

"But that isn't what you said, is it, Erza?"

She had nothing more to say to him it seemed, which was fine, as the closer they got back to the village, the less Ravan wanted to speak anyhow. He had his bandanna all the way pulled up and was back to glaring out at the world when they arrived once more in the village. He drew little attention still as he was walking with the great Titania Erza, who people either stood in awe of or openly called out their admiration.

Ravan wondered, distantly, what it would be like. To have people that much in your gratitude. He knew kind of, maybe, as he was a working mage and had saved a good number of people through the years. But nothing like what Erza had done for his village.

Nothing like what Erza had done for all of Fiore, if not the planet entirely.

Frowning beneath his bandanna, he felt as if he were giving her too much praise as well then, if only internally. He walked a near constant tightrope, between recognizing the woman's many heroic accomplishments and renouncing the place she had in his upbringing. While Ravan did respect the woman more than he did any other, he also was stuck with his hateful disposition, where he was just far more prone to lashing out at something that cared about him as opposed to accepting it.

It was when they were nearing in on the leader's home that Erza stopped suddenly, holding her arms out as she reequipped out of her armor and into a form-fitting dress. This trick garnered applause and cheers from those around them, but Ravan only made a face.

"You have no idea what Kai and I are talking about, huh, Erza?" he grumbled, but she was ignoring him pretty well know.

Not like he could complain.

He did this in the reverse to her constantly.

Up the path they went together though, reaching the Leader's house at the same time. It was as Erza raised her hand to wrap her knuckles against the door, but before they'd actually made contact that it was thrown open. Kai was on the other side of course, his eyes alight and a wide grin spread across his face.

"I thought you guys would never get here! And you found Ravan!" Quickly, he moved to tug both the woman and his brother into the home. "C'mon! Leader and Marin are waiting. And, well, I'm hungry too. That's the most important reason."

"You're such a loser," Ravan grumbled to his brother. "Do you always have to act so stupid?"

As Kai lost his joy and started whining over that though, Erza only walked on, passed them. They were in that tiny room with the desk they'd been greeted in much earlier in the day, but another door was open, on the back wall, and through it a kitchen could be glimpsed. It was small, especially with the little round table that set in its center, but Erza imagined this was nicer than most the huts around.

Walking towards it, she found Marin in there, looking quite nervous, no doubt from being left all alone with the man, and Alec, the leader, seated at the table with the girl. He stood though, as Erza entered, a bright grin spread across his face.

"It's not much," he remarked, gesturing around his tiny kitchen, "but it's home."

"It's plenty," Erza assured him and Kai and Ravan, who were busy butting heads still in the front room, both shared a glance before rushing in there as well.

"Erza always looks so pretty," Marin whispered softly to Kai as he came to reclaim his seat beside her. "I should have brought a nice dress. I-I didn't think to, when I packed."

"I like your normal dress," Kai assured her. "And besides, tomorrow we'll spend all day on the beach! Erza's just a show off."

"Erza," Ravan grumbled as he fell into a seat of his own, "can hear you."

Probably. But she was good at pretending otherwise as Alec had come to stand before her, speaking softly on something while the teens bickered.

"Where have you even been, Ravan?" Kai asked with a frown. "You missed out on talking with everyone first. So now they all think that I'm the super powerful wizard and that you're a big nobody, back in Magnolia."

"Kai," Marin complained, but Ravan only sneered, tugging down his bandanna just to make a face at his brother.

"So what you're saying is that, back in Magnolia," Ravan began with a frown, "I am a super powerful wizard and you're a big nobody."

"No! I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did."

"I did not."

"You literally-"

"Marin, tell him-"

"No, Kai, you need to stop bothering him and just-"

"He's not bothering me. Not when he's admitting that I'm a big powerful wizard and he's a bit-"

"I'm not a nobody!" Kai, who'd instigated the whole thing, somehow found himself most in his feelings. He'd jumped up some, glaring down at his brother who was openly smirking in his seat at the discomfort he'd wrought. "I'm going to go out on the boats tomorrow and actually contribute to something. I'm going to be a fisherman like I always wanted and you're just gonna sit around and sulk and cry that stupid rag around your face and-"

"Kai!" Erza, apparently, was finished with ignoring them. They all felt the scolding though, from Marin's blush, the way Kai melted back down into his seat, and Ravan tugged his bandanna back over his mouth. Still, the woman only kept up as she remarked, "Is this the kind of impression you wish to make upon your leader?"

"It's quite alright." Alec was quick to say, smiling over at the teens. "What's rowdiness between brothers, huh? Still, before the food gets too cold, let's eat, shall we? Here, it's not often I partake, but I did take it upon myself to open this bottle for our most esteemed guest. Here, let me pour you a glass, Titania. I was uncertain if the...rest of you drank-"

"We do," Kai assured him, quickly fading from his high emotions before at the thought. It had been just long enough from his ill-fated sip of ale that he was once more enthused by the idea. "Leader."

"They don't," Erza said dryly as Marin continued to blush and Kai smiled with all his teeth. "Ravan may, but the other two-"

"Ravan." Alec poured him a glass as well while Erza merely took her seat once more. Grinning at the younger man, he questioned, "Where did this name arise from? Were you so desperate to leave everything behind from home?"

Ravan was back in a terrible mood once more it seemed as he took to glaring off. Kai only laughed again thoguh, shrugging some.

"We just wanted to be someone new," Kai told the man simply. "And everyone in Fairy Tail comes up with cool names for themselves. Like Marin, she has an uncle named Bickslow. And Freed. And Elfman- Well, Elfman is his actual name, but-"

"Did I hear you mention you're going out on the boats in the morning?" Erza, once again, was deflecting the conversation away from him and it was getting harder for Ravan to overlook. "Kai? You know this will take place quite early. And I know your desire for sleeping through most of your responsibilities."

"What?" Kai frowned at her. "No way! I never do that. Leader. I'm always the first to rise to a challenge. Tell him, Marin."

"W-Well-"

Ravan's snort cut off Marin and Kai took to glaring at him for it. But Alec only looked on them with something of amusement as he took his own seat after pouring Erza a glass of wine as well.

"I am sure you will do well," the man assured Kai. "It's in your blood, after all."

"After all," Erza agreed, maybe, or at least repeated while the teen in question felt his cheeks heat up and this time, it wasn't from joy exactly. Something close, maybe, but still…

"It's not often I have guests," Alec was going on then, looking once more to Erza. "I often don't even eat in here. Too cramped. I mostly eat down with the others. Whoever will host me."

"A begging leader." Erza lifted her glass of wine to him. "Or perhaps a man of the people."

Gag. Ravan wanted to. He wanted to do a lot of things, honestly, but he also hadn't eaten all day and, well, Alec had taken to loading the table full of fish and veggies and if he just ate a bit, what could it hurt?

"What happened to your face? Zachary?"

He'd tugged down his bandanna again and, this time, under the light of the torches, the Leader had been given a chance to overlook him fully.

Erza wasn't going to come to his rescue this time, clearly, as when he looked to her, she only stared right back at him. The lacrima, it felt like, would only continue to be a point of contention between the pair of them. She wouldn't save him in relation to it.

Ever.

"I had a bad reaction," Ravan finally found it fit to speak to the man, raising his eyes fully to him while doing so. "From a lacrima. It...scarred me."

"It scarred us all." Erza was looking down into her wine glass then and Kai wondered less what it tasted like and more about how much Evergreen would probably like some. Just to taste. And critique. She did love those things. But when Erza raised her gaze, it was to glance around at them all and, for some reason, it was the hardest of the day to return as she said, "Ravan had a difficult year. And a difficult start to the new one. But it is already looking up."

There was a bit of an awkward pause then. It was Kai though, then, that spoke up, nudging poor Marin with an elbow while doing so.

"Marin has a lacrima too!" he said with an enthusiastic nod. "It's a slayer one. No one really knows, really, what Ravan's is, but it's probably way weaker than hers. It's a slayer lacrima that makes Master Laxus so powerful. And pretty soon, Mira will be on his same level! Who cares where Ravan's gets him?"

His brother was glaring at him then and Marin, who'd lifted a fork to eat, dropped it then as she felt eyes on her, but Kai only beamed, believing fully in his words.

"You mentioned," Alec began then, slowly, "that you two are...siblings, yes? I only find it remarkable, that you found yourself not only in the Fairy Tail, but also in the home of Titania Erza as well as so closely tied into the Dreyar name. I admit, I am not too well-known in the man's accomplishments, but the name is recognizable at least. It's quite...amazing that you've done so well for yourselves."

"Oh, it gets better than that." Kai had never had so many chances to tell and retell, tweak and retweak his own origin story before. Growing up in the guildhall and listening to all of the adults', he was excited to be given so many options. "Not only am I Erza's favorite person and do I sleep over at Master Laxus' place, but his wife? The demon Miraane? She loves me. A lot. And her brother, Beast Arm Elf? He's like my own uncle! And their sister, she beat death! Death! And Elfman's, well, whatever she is, Evergreen, she can turn people to stone. Literal stone. I'm, uh, pretty close to the Salamader too."

"You are?" questioned Alec, most interested in the last part, easily the most recognizable moniker.

"This is news to me," Erza agreed with a strong gaze.

"Well," Kai relented some, realizing he was taking too much of the pie and was surely going to fall flat soon enough. "He remembers my name sometimes. And his wife has called me cute before. Plus, Marin's cousin, who's practically my cousin, is best friends with his sons. So it all means something."

He took a breath then, Alec did, glancing between them all before lifting his glass himself. Before he took a swig however, he remarked, "Names get you places, sure. Out there. Back home though..."

And when he trailed off, Kai knew, he thought, maybe, what he meant. At least he was sure that he had to show out the next morning. Or, at the very least, not fuck it all up.

He was pretty sure he was going to fuck it all up.

Yeah, he was probably going to fuck it all up.

It was cool out, once the sun fell below the horizon, and Kai and Ravan's cousin met up with them not long after they exited the Leader's home, suggesting they shack up at his place, so they didn't have to bunk in their sleeping bags on the beach. But when Erza denied him this, claiming not wishing to impose, he instead took them to some hammocks nearby the homes, remarking that when the summer got hot enough, most of the young people liked to spend the night out in them. But for the late spring, they were free.

Marin was nervous about them, but Kai, ever the adventurer (so long as the adventure was relatively safe and mostly involved little to no physical activity), lunged right into his...only to tumble right back out. As his brother and cousin snickered, Erza only sighed, loudly before tilting her head up at the sky and finding the many stars rather welcoming.

"I haven't seen this many," Marin whispered about them, later in the night, as she and Kai laid awake in adjacent hammocks, blinking sleepily up at the night sky, but unable to find peace in such an unfamiliar place. Because for all Kai had boasted about feeling at home, well, in the evening… "Except maybe when my aunt and uncle took me camping once, maybe, but-"

"I see them all the time."

This came from Ravan, who had his bandanna pulled up, over his eyes, but unable to find rest too it seemed.

"Out," he whispered as he rolled over, "on jobs. You two would too, if you ever left Magnolia."

As Marin blushed, Kai only stuck his tongue out at his brother before remarking, "Yeah, well, once Marin becomes a better mage than you, she'll probably go on way more jobs than you, so-"

"So," Ravan growled, shoving off his bandanna from over his eyes, "what? What difference would that make to what we're talking about right now, you idiot?"

"You're an idiot!"

"And your hiding behind your stupid friend like it'll make a difference about your pathetic life. It won't. At all. Marin can become the most powerful wizard in the world-"

"I really don't think I can," she whispered softly, but her words hardly mattered now.

"-and you still won't be an important person," Ravan kept up. "So-"

"So," Kai retorted, "it doesn't matter. You still suck."

"You suck."

"You suck."

"You-"

"Both of you," came the growl of Erza, over in her own hammock, "be quiet, before I-"

And she'd turned, Erza had, but perhaps not fully accustomed to a hammock yet, this caused her to be flipped right out of it, falling heavily onto her face.

Ravan shoved up at this, Marin looked on sympathetically, and Kai tried really hard, so very hard not to let on just how much he was quite clearly fighting laughter.

Erza though, she stayed down there for a moment, silent and seething, no doubt, before shoving up, dusting herself off, and falling back into her hammock once more without a word. And, slowly, the others as rested back into their owns, vowing not to speak a word of this again.

At least, not in front of the swords woman, of course.

Because behind her back, well…

Well.

This served to break the tension somehow and, one by one, the teens found themselves drifting off. But Marin was the last awake and she only continued to stare up at the stars, not so much wondering about what Kai and Ravan argued about, or even anything about their current misadventure at all. Instead, she thought of how lonely she was, when she was so far from home.

For all she hated it, all the times she felt like she was forgotten about or ignored in her family, well, maybe there was just something nice. About being around them. Even if they weren't always so nice to be around.

As she drifted off, she did think of Kai and Ravan again, if only for a moment, and considered how much it must mean to them then, to be back where they belonged, if only for a moment, and was glad they were there. More than she had been before, even.

Though what she was feeling surely wasn't even a microfraction of what it truly was, to miss one's family, one's home, she was glad they had this comfort now, once more.

Even if it would be only for a few more nights.


	3. Chapter 3

The sky was still dark, only just wisps of dark blue to breakup the black, but there was much commotion going on along the coast. It wouldn't be until the sky turned pink that the women and children stirred, but time for the men to begin their preparations for the early morning net casting.

It was around then that Kai's cousin, Row, came by to shake him awake. But as Kai only told him with bleary eyes that, no, there was definitely no way he was getting up yet, Erza, who'd actually been up stretching already, prepping for a good, brisk run in the predawn hours, took to it to dump him out of hi hammock and force him up.

"Erza," he complained, but she shoved him then, insistence in her stance as Marin and Ravan both peeked their eyes open, but were sure not to make a sound, neither wishing to be sent off either.

"Go," she order Kai. "It's what you wanted."

Oh, yes, it definitely was.

But definitely not so early.

Or at all, really, when he found out how much work this involved. It was with a yawn that he tumbled into his clothes, but it was groans that escaped his usually enthusiastic form as the time trudged on.

For Marin and Ravan, however, this happened less in a trudge and more in an awkward march as, after being awoken, neither could find sleep again, regardless of the fact they still desperately needed it, and instead laid there in their separate hammocks, watching as the sky lightened bit by bit until along with the sounds of the men out in the water, they could hear the rest of the village awakening and found themselves awkwardly doing the same.

"C'mon." Ravan was rare to spend time alone with the girl, but did feel her at least some of his responsibility then. "I'll find us something for breakfast."

Marin had thought that the coast looked beautiful the night before, as the sunset around it, but somehow the dawn was much better. There was a busyness that was lost in the evening, as people hunkered down rather than arose, and she found herself struck at how...nice it was.

There.

At home she'd have just opened up and be getting down to handling the breakfast rush. And, yeah, she did understand that if she did live in Shadebay, she'd probably have her own tasks to be busy with right now, but as an outside viewer, there was such a state of peacefulness, that she couldn't see herself ever getting stressed out.

And she was frequently stressed back at home.

Ravan walked with the confidence of someone who knew where to go, but considering this was nothing like his home had been, in the decade before, she doubted this heavily. Still, Marin wasn't one to ask questions and instead followed closely behind, taking note of all the glances they got as they went.

But no one said anything to them. Ravan seemed not so much at place, as much as unapproachable in that moment, with a clear destination, that no one said anything.

He didn't really know where he was going, honestly. But he also didn't feel like speaking to anyone. And, as their path eventually lead them down to the beach, it was just as well. He spotted Erza almost immediately, further down, and headed that way.

After her run, Erza had taken it upon herself to oversee how the fishing was going. From the shore, she'd intended to watch, but when the children in the village awoke, some found themselves brave enough to rush down there to gawk at the armored woman and, well, it was hard for Erza not to give people a show.

He made a face, Ravan did, when he saw her out there, a spear summoned from her reequip, standing further out than the others, so the water came up around her ankles, tossing and retracting the spear at the tiny fish unfortunately enough to get so close inland. She missed the first few, but Erza wasn't known for failing long.

And sure enough, she soon seemed to master it, just as Ravan approached and, ugh.

While Marin headed on towards the woman, he diverged a bit, over to where he saw some women around Erza's age sitting in the sand, talking and giggling over, more than likely, how their children were behaving towards the swordswoman. At his approach though, they looked to him instead and the teen only tugged down his bandanna a bit awkwardly.

He didn't feel as confident, if he ever truly did, honestly, when he was actually forced to communicate with others. As he spoke, he began to pull his wallet from the his jean back pocket, but at the sight, one of the four women shook her head.

"You don't remember me," she questioned him as, rather than accepting his money, she instead only moved to stand before gathering up some of the fruit that sat between them and hand it off to the teen, "do you?"

"W-Well..."

He wanted to lie. Ravan did. Very badly. And pretend with the same amount of sincerity Kai had been able to forget. But he'd been older, just enough, than his brother that it had been impossible. Fully. Maybe he'd forgotten names and faces while he was away, but back now, around them all once more, it all was coming back to him constantly and he could only frown down at his feet. This felt cowardly, but for some reason, being a coward seemed to frequently suit him.

"Yeah," he finally managed, glancing up. "I remember."

And he did.

The woman speaking to him, he did very well. She lived across from them and was friends with his mother. Really good friends. It was almost offensive to accuse him of forgetting her. He imagined it was her intent. At least somewhat.

The blonde woman beside her wasn't from their village, but the one beside it. He remembered her because her husband had somehow been related to his father, but Ravan couldn't recall how. Distantly. But most everyone was distantly related. But he died in the disaster. And so had her young son.

He didn't know the other two women well, not really, but recognized the name he'd heard one called by another. She was the youngest of the women gathered around them and he imagined she was hardly older than he was currently, the last time he'd ever seen her. Maybe that's why he couldn't place her.

Marin was standing awkwardly by as always when Ravan rejoined her, watching Erza's feat with about the same interest as the others gathered around. The man had none of his own though and only gently tapped at her arm, holding out some of assorted fruit in his arms. When Marin only took a single apple, she took note of his frown and grabbed an orange as well.

"How many fucking fish can she harpoon before she's done playing up to children?" Ravan, who'd originally planned on sharing with the swordswoman as well, turned then. "Fucking annoying."

Marin felt a bit torn then, between the two, but Erza was at her element then and hardly had noticed their presence, much less the lack of it as Marin turned as well, trailing after Ravan. This made him frown too, but he didn't have long to dwell on his hanger-on, because they were quickly approached by people he wanted to see even less.

"Ay, Zach! You think you could come back and not even say hello, ah?"

When he was young, still living on the coast, there was actually a pretty healthy number of kids around to hang out with. It had nowhere near the same amount of kids available to him if he spent more time actually experiencing Magnolia as a whole, rather than hating every second he was around the same three in his guildhall, but spread across the tiny villages that dotted the coast, he had a high variety of playmates. In his village alone, including he and his brother, there were probably about ten or eleven kids and a good number of teenagers.

But after the sea monster…

He remembered being told he was lucky, after finding out his parents were dead. So many families were wiped out completely, but here he was, not one of the many that were the only left in their own, but rather standing right there, with his younger brother. Two young boys to carry on the family name.

How could he complain about such a gift?

So many of his friends parents, who cried and grieved openly in those uneasy days following Erza's destroying of the monster, would die for such a thing. Literally. For this children to be there, right then, instead of them. Their sons and daughters. And look, Zach and Benny were right there, through the sacrifice of their own parents.

Ravan had lost more than just his mother and father, when he arrived at Fairy Tail. It was just often forgotten in place of the much heavier tragedy.

It felt weird. In a way it hadn't before, even, just to be standing on the grounds of his former home, to see them then. Just two of them. Two guys that he'd spent the first half of his life with. Now, standing on the opposite half, they looked rough and grizzled, but still like themselves. Did he look that way too? Or did he look soft and weak? Because he didn't stick it out, the days of struggle and hunger, clawing and rebuilding. He fled to Magnolia, where he was only as hungry as he was willing to make himself, only struggled in the theoretical, certainly not the physical. No. He'd gotten to live it up, in a place the others could only dream of, while they toiled away to rebuild what he left behind.

And he acted like a little whiny bitch about it the whole time…

Ravan wanted his bandanna then, but it hung around his neck while his arms will still filled with fruit, meaning it was stuck in its place then. Marin, at his side, was staring up at him curiously, but he didn't want to look at her then. Only took another step forwards, as the two guys came to a stop before them, in the sand, one with his arms behind his head and the other with them crossed over his chest. Both were grinning though, truly, Marin could tell, but Ravan always seemed to see the worst in most situations.

This was one of those situations.

They surely meant him no harm. He knew them, maybe years ago now, nearly a decade, but still, they couldn't have changed that much, could they have? But what if they did? What if they hated him, for the fact that he ran away, that he was this big powerful mage now and they were still stuck here? Or was he a dick to think of it that way? Putting too much value on his own life and devaluing theirs? What value did his life hold? He still lived at Erza's, while they probably had a place of their own, that they built, and maybe even wives or kids and he was still moping about how his only, singular friend ran off and tangling with her boyfriend on occasion.

He was the one who lived a horribly embarrassing life. Not them. He'd been given all the opportunity and squandered it and he could feel it then, his lacrima, pulsing. As he got lost in his own dark thoughts, it beat along with his rapid heart rate, to remind him of its presence. If he wasn't careful, he'd fade away.

And he really didn't wanna have that conversation with them as well.

It felt like forever since they'd come to a stop before him and Ravan felt like an ass, he always felt like an ass, probably because he was an ass, he was pretty sure, but he did manage to nod his head at them then, bile creeping up his throat at the thought of dealing with this situation.

"What made you wanna suddenly come back now, huh?" The larger one, he was...large, when they were kids, but he looked better built now, he questioned this with a slight tilt of his head. "Your brother, I spoke to him a bit yesterday and he said-"

"He's an idiot." This came out involuntarily, but Ravan stood by it and was thankful for it. He really didn't wanna hear anything about whatever it was that Kai was telling other people. At all. Looking off though, Ravan kicked some at the ground as he said, "We just...felt like ti was time."

"Yeah, well," the other one was slaying, and he took a step forwards too then, arms dropping from behind his head, "it's good to see one another again, eh? Betcha can't guess what I do now."

"Guess not the boats," Ravan remarked, and he meant more that he wasn't, you know, actually out there in that moment, but the bigger of the two of them laughed, taking this to be a slight at the other, given his much slimmer figure.

"I can still throw down," he insisted with a frown, taking Ravan's answer the wrong way as well. Still, he was all grins as he said, "But you're right, anyways. I don't. I run the trade route now. Pretty important person. I oversee it all."

"You take a cart and a horse to the city every other week." The larger guy was clearly not impressed. "And still manage to fuck it up."

As they glared at one another, Ravan only took to glancing between them looking off. It was this that allowed him to see Marin, still there and, well, not really useful usually, but in this case…

"I kinda gotta get back to showing Marin around." Ravan nodded at her then and he felt somewhat bad, maybe, because she was clearly picking up on the absolute awkward vibe he was giving out, which wasn't meshing well with her own, and him dragging her into the conversation did little to ease this. "So, I guess I'll-"

"Your girlfriend?"

"Wh- N-No!" Ravan frowned at the larger one and gained some actual edge then. "Dude, she's, like, a kid. Gross. She's my...brother's friend."

"Really?" It was the slimmer one then, that spoke now as he came closer again, grinning quite sweetly at Marin as he held out a hand. "Rik's the name. I can show you around way better than Zach, huh? Seeing as I actually live here."

Before Marin had a chance to actually possible shake or take his hand though, Ravan dropped the fruit in his arms just to shove the other guy away with a glare.

"I said," Ravan complained with a glare, "that she's a fucking kid."

"I just joking dude, calm down."

"She's my master's daughter, dude, so fuck off."

"It was a bad joke." The other guy spoke up while Rik only tossed up his hands, as if in defense, while Ravan snorted, turning away slightly. "Let's not fight over something so stupid, huh?"

Ravan didn't want to. Fight. With them. But he also really didn't wanna talk with them. He didn't want to be there. He'd convinced himself, before arriving, that maybe he did, maybe he'd find a piece of himself there, but no. The whole time he'd been there, all he'd been was miserable. His thoughts were racing constantly and he was just peeking around every corner, convinced that it was all going to blow up in his face already. Soon. That this was all just a big ruse to get him here and then they'd do something awful to him, or at least try to.

Because that's how his life went usually.

Or at least it always felt that way.

Rik smiled at him then, again, widely, and Ravan used his free hands to his advantage now, tugging up his bandanna around his mouth. He had a brief moment of thinking that this made him look cool or something, given the way both Rik and the other guys' expressions changed, but it only took a single shadow falling over them all to let Ravan know what the real issue was.

"Here you are, the two of you." Erza came to a stop behind the man and Marin. She had her pleasant tone going then, but it was nails on a chalkboard to the older teen. "Are these your friends, Ravan? Introduce me."

His groan was perhaps a bit too audible, but the woman remained oblivious as, when he spoke each of their names, both Rik and the other guy, Thomas, both bowed their heads in response. Neither seemed able to rightly look the woman in the eyes. Not that this bothered her. She merely nodded at them in turn.

"Ravan is rare to speak on those he knew in the years prior," she said instead, "but I welcome you both to visit whenever-"

"Erza." Ravan really didn't want to have to live (and die) by her words. Turning to frown at her, he said, "I thought you were busy showing off?"

"Honing a skill is hardly showing off," the woman scoffed at him.

"You were showing off." Ravan looked to Marin then. She'd been silent through this all, fading away about as effortlessly as his lacrima now allowed him. Making a face, the other teen remarked, "Marin noticed too."

"W-Well...it did feel a bit unnecessary." Marin blushed harder then, at the woman's gaze, than she did when Rik attempted something with her moments before. "Maybe. I don't know. Really."

This was less hurtful towards Erza in the sense that she thought such a thing could be true (she knew not the definition, literally, of showing off), but rather, well, Ravan was supposed to have ocnvinced the girl by now how great she was, to learn from and under. It seemed more and more frequently, however, that he was doing the exact opposite.

"I was the one who gave you your sword!"

This broke up the trios little inner turmoil (for the moment at least), as Thomas, the larger of the other guys, spoke up quite suddenly. Both he and Rik had been the ones to fall silent before, perhaps out of respect for the woman before them, but he seemed to be finding his voice now.

"When you were fighting the monster," Thomas was going on as the others, even Rik, only stared. "I...I broke away from the group, my parents, they...well, they died when I was little, but my grandfather, he was the one who took care of me. Back then. And he was on the boats, when… So since he was already dead, no one was around to keep track of me. Not really. Or make me stay, where they'd forced us to all gather up. When we heard you were there, I snuck away and went down to the beach and I saw you. Fighting the monster. All by yourself. Some of the men tired to help you, but you barked at them to stay back and, when you were distracted, the monster's tail knocked your sword away and… I mean, I guess you couldda just gotten back, somehow, huh? Or summoned a new weapon? But I ran to pick it up and… I tried to give it to you, but you yelled at me too and someone grabbed me and pulled me back, but..."

The moment felt awkward now and Thomas himself even felt embarrassed by his outburst, but after this passed, Erza merely smiled brightly and nodded.

"I find my memories rather muddled from that time," she admitted with a nod, "but I do recall something similar to that, yes."

Thomas grinned as well then but Ravan, sour still, only bent down to gather up his fruit once more.

"Yeah, well, I got shit to do," he grumbled. "So-"

"You have plans? With your friends?" Erza tried hard not to sound excited, but, well...it had just been awhile. Since he'd seemed to have any of those.

"What? No, I-"

"Hey, yeah!" Rik was animated once more. "You can come with me, Zach. I gotta make an emergency run into the big town, to get supplies. We've moved up the big ceremony to tomorrow night, to honor Titania's arrival."

"You what?" Ravan groaned then, loudly. Childishly. He couldn't help it.

"A ceremony," Erza mused. "Alec mentioned a gathering, tomorrow, but-"

"We usually have it closer to the beginning of summer," Thomas offered helpfully. "But since you are here, we're-"

"Breaking tradition? For her?" Ravan growled this against his bandanna, causing the two other guys give him curious glances, while Marin blushed in his regard and Erza got indignant.

"Some people," she remarked, "know how to offer their respects."

"Are you dead now? Huh?" he challenged back. "Cause I gladly will then."

"Ravan-"

"But you could come with me." Rik really wanted to put an end to this weird awkward vibe Erza and the other guy had going. Taking a step forwards, he said, "You and your, uh, friend, the Master's daughter-"

Ravan was right back to being annoyed. "Dude, I already fucking warned you-"

"A trip with your former friend hardly needs to be tainted by us. Either of us." Erza looked to Marin. "Isn't that right?"

"W-Well, I don't-"

"Surely," Erza kept up, "there is something else you could be doing right now. Marin. Something. With someone Perhaps Ravan can remind you of it. Hmm? Ravan? Anything to add?"

"Literally," the man complained as he only continued to eye the grinning Rik, "nothing."

"Kai should be finished soon," Marin decided with a nod. "I should wait for him. You can show me around another time."

Ravan really wasn't counting on it. But when Rik opened his mouth, no doubt to pretend as if she were referring to him and, once more, make the offer, he found himself speaking first.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed. "When I get back."

"Great!" Thomas reached out then, to hit Ravan right hard in the shoulder. As the other guy frowned, Thomas only insisted, "I'll head into town with you guys. We can all catch back up."

"Yeah." Ravan couldn't help his tone or the heavy sarcasm dripping from it. "Great."

"I," Erza began, behind over then to snag the assorted fruit gathered at the men's feet, "will be taking these-"

"For what?" Ravan complained, though he didn't move to stop her.

"I need something to eat with my fish."

"Do you even have anyone to prep it for you?" he continued.

"I'm sure someone," Erza remarked as she turned to walk away and, thankfully, Marin moved to follow, "will gladly offer."

"Ask your _boyfriend_," Ravan grumbled.

Erza only hummed, not even glancing over her shoulder at him. "Oh, he's far too busy ridding the world of evil forces for such a mediocre task."

"Yeah." He watched her and Marin leave, but felt no relief over it. "'cause that's what I meant."

Marin could tell that Ravan didn't really wanna stick around with his, well, at one time, friends, and she was nearly certain that Erza knew the same. Yet, the woman kind of forced him into it, or at least made it to where he had to wrangle himself back out of it. The younger teen was certain this was punishment for something, but she couldn't quite tell what.

"Come." Erza did spare her a glance though. "We must await Kai. I'm sure he'll have much to share."

And boy did he.

He found where they were sitting on the beach, Erza once more flanked by those brave enough to approach her, but he hardly cared for any of them. Just fell, nosedived, really, right into the sand beside Marin, his head just brushing her thigh.

"Kai," she complained, but he only lifted his know sandy head up with a heavy frown.

"I," he told her with bleary eyes, "think I'm going to die."

"You're not," Marin assured him. "You're just exhausted."

"If you spent any time actually training, or even just doing your jobs seriously at the hall," Erza butted in, glancing over at him with a frown, "then maybe you'd be more in shape."

"Ah, Erza." Kai took note then, of the others gathered about, and forced himself to sit up fully and toss a hand behind his head. "You and your jokes. You're so great at them."

"Well," the woman hummed thoughtfully. "I do know quite a few good ones. Has anyone ever heard the one about the...no...how does that one go again?"

It didn't matter.

The sun was higher in the sky now and Kai, though worn out, was reverent enough to know that it would be the next day where his muscles kicked his ass and he'd be too worn out to do much of anything. So when the heat of the day set in, he only slung back some fruit and water before rushing back to where they'd dropped their packs to change into his trunks to go for a swim.

He doubted he'd have the energy in the days following.

Marin changed into a one-piece and Kai finally had his turn, to meet back up with the few friends he had back in the day. They younger teen crowd had approached him the day before, when he was bragging himself up, but it was different now as they all met down on the beach, and he felt far more at ease than his brother had, falling right back into where he left off.

Because that's what he did.

Both he and Ravan left, yeah, but the intentions were entirely different. Kai always knew he'd be back here. Always. He was picking right back up though and it felt good, to be around people that actually seemed to wanna be around him.

For all the pretending he did, just like Ravan, Kai was always pretty well aware of how out of place he felt, in the halls of Fairy Tail.

Marin felt out of place, maybe, as she rubbed at her arm and nodded whenever Kai mentioned her, but the second they all were splashing about in the water, she felt more at home. Enough so that she swam out, just a bit, away from the others, to stare at the expanse of nothing, but water beyond.

"What's that?" she asked Kai when he waded over to her, squinting in the distance at a dot she pointed out, towards the east."

"Oh." He kicked out, floating on his back now as he stared up at the cloudless sky. "That's a, cove? Maybe? I dunno. It's where the rocks jut out. There's some tiny caves and things. When I was little, it's where all the older kids would sneak off to...to..."

He couldn't help himself, Kai couldn't. He snickered so heavily that he lost his control and tumbled back down into the water, but when he sprang back up, his tangled hair only clung to his dripping face tightly as he grinned with every single tooth.

Marin, as always, found this not nearly as funny and only questioned, "I thought you said Ravan went to the caves too?"

"Oh, he did. To brood or whatever. And get out of chores." Kai kicked his feet back once more, to float again. "I never went over there though. I never wanted to. It's too far a swim."

"I think you could just walk there. If you followed the beach and then the rocks-"

"It's too far for that too."

"Kai."

But he only grinned at her look and it was a nice day. For the two of them. Marin even began to loosen up, maybe a bit, after spending the day with Kai's childhood friends. They seemed welcoming enough and, other than how Rik had been before, most just seemed glad to have someone else from Fairy Tail around. She offered up any answers they wanted, anyways, about guild life, and at Kai's insistence, admitted to possessing a lacrima.

"W-Well, I have one," she agreed as they sat around in the sand that afternoon, "but I'm not really-"

"Marin's just learning how to be one, a slayer," Kai took over with ease, nodding his head curtly. "She'll even be stronger than Erza, probably, by the time she's all trained up!"

"Kai," Marin complained, but he was so good at it, just smiling through those.

It was just all so...peaceful. Marin didn't know that, anymore. If ever. Peace. Growing up in the hall was a constant state of drunkards and brawling. Even though she partook in neither and had no plans to as she only continued to mature, it could sometimes be a rather rough environment. And while she had no doubts that things could get much more serious, much faster, there on the cusps of the great equalizer that was the ocean, there was just a different tone on the coast. A different vibe.

And as the evening just began to break over the horizon, the air turned cool while the sun slid beyond the waves and there was something nice about that as well. Fire pits speckled the in lands, belonging to each little faction of a family or group, which all lit up around then, as they cooked their meals for the night. Marin didn't know where Erza had gotten off to, the entire day (Kai joked something about the leader and, well…), but that was fine because one of the teens they'd hung out with invited them back to have dinner with their family.

It was a girl, who'd invited them, and she was awfully pretty, and looked just like her mother, Marin found, when they sat around the fire pit together, her father and brothers snickering something to Kai about his own father and brother, and it all just made Marin miss home more, thinking of her own mother and father and...her sister too.

"Your mother and I," the woman told Kai while her daughter blushed, "always said that the two of you would-"

"Ma," the girl complained, tossing a sliced veggie from her plate at the woman while her brother's only howled.

Kai though tossed a hand behind his head, looking up at the sky as he only remarked, "Yeah, well, uh. Well."

Marin blushed on his behalf, looking off as well.

Row came to collect them eventually, to take them back to his hut. He made something of joke, lamenting he didn't really have a wife, or anybody, honestly, so to excuse him, if he didn't have much to offer them.

"I thought," he said, mostly to Kai, as they stepped into the tiny structure, "we could just talk. Is your brother around?"

"He left with some other guys to go into town. For supplies or something. Marin said it was for some kinda ceremony, but I don't-"

"Remember?"

The inside of Row's hut just consisted of a bed, shoved into one corner, and some boxes with an assortment of things in them. He'd tossed two pillows though, down on the floor, for his guests, and they sat there while he sat on the corner of his mat, grinning softly at Kai in the light of the few candles that sat around.

He smiled though, Row did, at his younger cousin, as Kai looked down, somewhat embarrassed by his perceived slight. But Row only insisted, "It's alright. There's probably a lot that you forgot about."

"I think I remember. M-Maybe." Sniffling some, he scratched at his cheek as he said, "I remember...before summer, we'd all get together, but I don't remember why."

"You will. Tomorrow," his cousin assured him. "We'll go through the whole ritual."

Kai nodded along, but still felt unsure and somewhat sorry, honestly, towards his cousin. In all the people left, in their village and the ones it absorbed, Row just...seemed so alone. Kai knew that Ravan felt that way sometimes, but he'd never experienced it himself. At all. He had his brother and Marin and Erza and, even if back here, back home, he felt rather disconnected to it now, he knew he'd had his guild. The whole time. Whether it wanted him or not.

He just hoped that Row felt the same way, back on the coast.

"Don't look so down, cousin," Row said and, in that light, right then, Marin could see it best, how much the two looked alike. She wondered if Kai had looked more like his father, then. Leaning forwards then, to rest his elbows on his knees, the man added, "You turned out pretty fine for yourself, huh? In...what's it called?"

"Magnolia," Kai whispered and Row nodded.

"It sounds...nice. There. The way you talk about it, all those...wizard and powerful people, and to think, you've found your place among them- Why are you crying? Are you okay?"

Kai only buried his head in his hands as Marin shifted closer, raising a hand to pat at his shoulder. He only shrugged her off though as he took in a deep breath, resounding to his fate.

"I mightta...well...I kinda, may've sorta...lied." Kai raised his teary eyes to his cousin's curious ones. "About it all. I… I'm not some big, amazing, powerful wizard. At all. Erza doesn't train me; she trains Ravan. Or she did. Now she just takes care of me. I scrub the toilets, in the guildhall, and take care of the landscaping, and even then only because one time I was a big coward and left Marin all alone, when we were attacked by someone, and the Master did it as punishment, but now they feel too sorry for me, 'cause I ain't that good of a mage enough to take any jobs, so they let me work in the hall, 'cause Marin likes me so much. The Master don't. His wife does, a lot! But the Master… I'm a bum."

Row sat there for what felt like forever, on Kai's end at least, before laughing. Loudly. As Marin blushed, Kai only began to frown.

"It's not funny."

"I saw you, Benny," his cousin assured him. "On the boat. You're hardly...in enough shape, to be some sort of impressive wizard."

"I couldda been one who doesn't have to be in shape," Kai retorted. "You don't know."

"But you're not."

Deflating, he admitted again, "No. I'm not."

"Why did you lie?" Row felt himself lose some joy as well, looking curious now at the younger guy. "Ben?"

"Well, I… I wanted you all to like me." His eyes fell again. "And think that I was important. And that there was a reason, am important one, that I left. Not just 'cause I was following my brother. I wanted you to think that I...that I mattered. Somewhere. And if I had stayed, that I would have mattered here too."

He leaned over some then, Row did, holding out his fist to his cousin. When Kai pressed his own into the older man's, Row only laughed again, a much kinder one this time.

"I dunno why you left, Ben," the man told him then, tone solemn. "And I don't know what would have happened if you stayed here. But I know you sure seem happy. Even when you're not lying. And just because you've made a family somewhere else, with...others," he remarked, glancing at Marin then, who felt completely out of place, but faithful to Kai's constant need for support always, "that doesn't mean that anyone forgot you back here. I'm happy, more than you know, to find out that you haven't been miserable all these years. And if it's true, that Titania Erza has taken you in, then what's to be so embarrassed about that for? It sounds more like an honor, to me."

He sniffled then, Kai did, loudly down at his feet, before nodding his head in agreement.

It was.

Ravan still wasn't around when Kai and Marin drifted back to the hammocks that night, but Erza was, looking rather fresh for some reason.

"Looking good for a date?" Kai asked behind a snicker, but she only frowned.

"I washed up following a rather rigorous training session with some of the more able bodied in your village." She was bent over her pack, putting something away it seemed, but did spare the two of them a glance. "I'm glad to see you going to bed at such a reasonable hour. Early to bed, early to rise."

"No." Kai shook his shaggy head. "I think I'mma probably sleep til after breakfast tomorrow, I'm so tired."

"You have," Erza said, but ti sounded more like an order, "to be up early to accompany the men on the fishing boats."

"Erza-"

"It is not a discussion."

And suddenly, the day felt a lot less upbeat.

Still, he and Marin did share some giggles and snickers, as the woman left them alone for the time being, there in their hammocks. She was glad, whether she could express it properly or not, for the two of them to be in such high spirits.

The person she was seeking out, after all, so rarely was in his own.

It was while she was seeking out Ravan, however, that she ran into Alec. Or, rather, was probably discovered by him. He tried hard to make it look like happenstance, anyways, and effort should always rewarded. Erza did her part by agreeing to walk along with him.

"At least until Ravan arrives back," she conceded, and he was quick to remind her that this might be a bit. When she in turn questioned if the travel to and from was lengthy, he was sure to shake his head.

"They're young men," he told her with something of a grin. "Back together again, after so long. I imagine they are getting themselves into all sorts of trouble."

"Ravan is not the type to...indulge in much of anything." She frowned though, granting a concession for his cigarettes. "He is very disciplined. It is one of the most important aspects of being a mage."

"Just because you're disciplined," he told her with a bit of a glint in his eyes, "doesn't mean you can't cut loose some times, huh?"

"That is true." Erza held her head high. "I have only been away from home for a short few days and already, I feel myself...cutting loose. There is just something about it. Something I forgot." And she slammed one fist into another. "When I was harpooning those fish...I really felt free. I also struggled recalling a funny joke I heard early today, but as the time has worn on, and I have become more relaxed, I found it has come back to me. Would you like to hear it?"

"Uh, well...sure," the man finally gave in. "I'd love to."

She'd followed him along the bath, down to where the tide had taken over much of the sandy beach, and most everyone seemed to have deserted. It was just the two of them.

"There was a farmer," Erza began, but there was an awkward pitch to her tone, an unfamiliar one, as she seemed about ready to bust at the seams before she even got the joke out, "and he owned many different animals. But his favorite, by far, was his goat. It wasn't a particularly special goat or anything, but it was a rather old one, passed on from his father, and he treasured it for this reason. So, a day comes when he does his early morning chores and he notices it; his goat is gone! So he rushing around, looking all about, to see if he's escaped, but of course this isn't the case. No. He knows exactly who's taken his goat. It has to be that wicked woman that lives down the lane. He just knows it in his gut. So he goes to her home, the sun hardly even up, and bangs on the woman's door and her husband answers. He questions the man why he's there and the farmer angrily replies, 'You're wife has got my goat!' and the other man replies, 'Well, she's clearly upset you, but why are you here?'"

There was a moment where they both stopped walking, not really in sync, truly, because it was for completely separate reasons that this occurred. For Erza, it was due to her finally releasing it, her laughter as she doubled over, the sound floating quite eerily over the coast. For Alec, his movements were halted as he not only felt uneasy observing this, but also because, well…

"I'm," he admitted softly, "not sure if I get it. Was that the end of the joke?"

Straightening herself, Erza took a deep breath before clearing her throat and remarking, "It's better when told by Jellal. He has a much better delivery. He has a very deadpan delivery."

For some reason, Alec was most interested in the end of this sentence, remarking in surprise, "There is someone more deadpanned than you?"

As she shook her head and continued on, he was quick to fall in step. Still, the woman only sighed as she said, "I hear there is to be a ceremony tomorrow. Ravan seemed quite disappointed to hear it's occurring so early."

Alec grunted in response before replying, "I imagine it will be far different than he remembers it regardless. It's...changed. Now. Or it did, when the thrill villages…I think he will appreciate it though, once he truly has a chance to experience it again."

Erza felt doubtful, but only because she rarely found Ravan appreciative of anything, truly.

She was glad, however, to find him rooting around in his bag when she made it back to the hammock. After their stroll, Alec had offered to wait around with her longer, to see if he showed, but she'd declined and thought to wait for him back at the hammock.

"I thought I might find you here," she remarked softly, as not to awaken the snoozing Kai and Marin. Things were truly settling out now, over the village, and the assortment of fires dotting the oceanside were beginning to be fully extinguished as most all retired for the night. "Did you enjoy your time with your-"

"I really," he grumbled without turning to glance behind him, where she stood, imposing as ever, "don't wanna talk to you right now, alright?"

"Well, it is rather late. In the morning-"

"Then either-"

"I do not understand your attitude of late, Ravan, but-"

"I don't have an attitude, alright?" Standing, he seemed to have changed his original intent as now, instead he slung his pack over his shoulder. "This is my vacation too, isn't it? Why should I have to be around you all the time? Or Kai? Or Marin? Huh? I don't wanna listen about his stupid fishing shit or her stupid lacrima shit or you hanging around with the leader-"

"Oh." Erza deflated some then, frowning at him in the light of only the moon. "That is what has you so upset? I thought you and your brother were only teasing. I did not honestly think that you were so...concerned. I… I would never… We were all joking, I thought. I didn't know you thought of Jellal and I as your-"

"I don't," he griped back with an edge now, "think if the two of you as anything. And I don't want to talk to you or be around anyone in this stupid village."

"If something happened when you were out with your friends-"

"Just leave me alone."

Erza watched him, as he disappeared then, far too quickly into the darkness, honestly, she thought, but maybe it was just a trick of the light? Or his new power? Regardless, if she wanted to, she knew she could go after him and continue their...whatever it was they were going through currently, but no. She had to remind herself, force herself to remember, that this was pall part of it. Letting go. Stepping back.

If he wanted her, she'd still be right where she always was.

"I think of you and Jellal as the greatest people ever." Kai had pushed up at some point, on his hammock, smiling at the woman in the darkness. "If it helps."

"Kai," came the whispered hiss of Marin, but Erza only sighed, holding her arms out to effortlessly reequip into something more comfortable, before going to claim her own hammock.

"Go to sleep," she ordered them both softly. "There's a lot to look forward to. In the morning."


	4. Chapter 4

The dawning of the next day meant sloughing through his duties out on the boats once more for Kai while Marin felt rather amiss without any for herself. Erza took off to train around the time Kai was drug off for fishing and, when Marin awoke, it was to find Ravan had never returned in the night.

This meant that she had the entirety of the morning to herself.

Marin felt out of place. She had this entire trip. Maybe her entire life…

It was while she was heading down to the beach though, in hopes of finding a quiet space to watch the sunrise, that she noticed someone else walking in her direction. It was Rik, Ravan's friend from the day before, and Marin really, really didn't want to deal his...teasing or, especially, if he was being sincere in his attempts before. But when he called out to her, he sounded far more concerned over something than interested.

"Hey," he asked as he came to a stop before the girl, "have you seen Zach anywhere around?"

"N-No," Marin said with a shake of her head. "Not since, w-well, he, um… Last night, he and Erza got into an argument when he got back from-"

"Yeah, he flipped the fuck out last night," Rik went on, not even looking at her then as he glanced around instead. "We, uh, finished up early and, well, we went out and… Is he...okay?"

There was an implied deeper implication to that statement, Marin knew, that wasn't referring to Ravan in the current time, but overall. But honestly, she wasn't sure if she could willfully reply to either. But her expression seemed enough of an answer as, after easily gauging it, Rik sighed some before looking off.

"Yeah, well," he muttered as he turned to walk off, "I guess I'll see him around at the ceremony tonight."

Marin felt like she should come to Ravan's defense somehow, even without knowing exactly what it was that constituted as 'flipping out' for Rik. After all, in the Fairy Tail guild, most all member interactions involved at least one flip out, didn't they? Her sister, Locke, Ravan, and Navi had never been able to all get together without one of them (well, a specific one of them) turning against the others. Or an argument spawning. Even in their final ventures as a team.

Ravan had always been sulky and quiet. And when he wasn't being one of those, explosive and self-destructive. They were his only four emotions and he cycled through them with little effort. Those she couldn't even speculate as to his temperament when he was a child, back on the coast, she couldn't imagine he was much more animated or less prone to disgruntlement.

Still, it would be a lie to say she hadn't felt it recently. What they all had. Since he put in his lacrima. Ravan had always been a bit dark, but that felt enhanced now, somehow, and though he'd been trying to be nice it seemed like, since his immediate blow up following his illness, there was just something edging beneath the surface. Something was going to come out eventually.

When she made it down to the waves following this encounter, Marin found the sight a welcomed one. As she'd begun to explore her own lacrima more, there was a certain draw she'd never experienced before. As highly as she thought of some people, such as her mother or aunts and uncles, Marin couldn't imagine being a mage and not be tied to an element. She always noticed her father or sister's better moods, during a thunderstorm, or even Navi's, when they were kids, and would all sit around the fire pit in front of the old clubhouse, but had only recently begun to feel the same draw to water. There was just something so...inviting, elemental, about being around something that could be so deadly to someone else, but could completely consume you, engulf you, but would still pose no threat, would only strengthen you.

She wanted to sink to the bottom of it. The ocean before them. Just set out, start swimming, and never stop. Go deeper and deeper until she couldn't keep her head above it, the water. But instead of drowning, instead of becoming frightened, she'd just dive deeper and deeper until she reached the bottom of it, the sandy, unattainable bottom of the ocean. She knew it had to be cold, down there, of course it was cold down there, void of any light, but for some reason, she imagined it to be so warm and, when she'd tilt her head back, to stare with open eyes at the refraction of sunlight so impossibly above, there would just a...contentment. Finally. Inside of her.

She would finally be where she belonged.

The teen was so distracted by the waves that it made her jump when someone touched her arm. There were others all about the beach, of course, children chasing one another up and down it as well as others tending to their typical morning duties. But she'd felt so alone, as she stared out at the vanishing horizon, that it surprised her when a hand was laid over her arm and someone began speaking to her.

"It's Marin, right?"

It was the nice girl they'd eaten with, the night before, her and Kai, and as she glanced behind herself, Marin found some of the other teen girls waiting nearby, chatting idly in the early morning through yawns.

"We're getting ready for the ceremony tonight," the girl before her said with a smile. "You should join us?"

She hesitated, Marin did, in bowing out like she knew she should, and it was enough time for the girl before her to smile widely and insist, even, that she definitely join them. And, well, Marin wasn't raised to be rude to a host.

Marin didn't spend a lot of time with girls her own age. Really, she didn't spend a lot of time with anyone her own age, other than Kai. The teens their age in the hall were constantly out on jobs and, given that the two of them weren't interested in that at all, it left them with the old fogies who drank always in the bar for company. While most everyone was always kind to her, Marin always had a slight hesitance, maybe bore from the years she spent being admonished by her older sister nearly daily or even her ill-fate in being raised in a rough and tumble guildhall she certainly wasn't equipped to weather. Regardless, Marin tried to keep to herself around strangers and after having Haven complain quite frequently about other teen girls and their cattiness (she'd always seemed least likely to get along with them), Marin feared what awaited her in this situation.

But...it wasn't so bad.

At all.

Haven always told her that other girls were the worst, that they judged every little thing you did and you could see it, right in their eyes, the absolute spite they held for you. She'd gone through a phase, after all, of at least attempting to be friends with those away from the guild, back when Locke started dating some of the other girls around Magnolia. Haven could never find a way to fit in with any of them, ever, and would only return home to either bitch about it to her sister who was too timid to suggest that, maybe, it was her inability to be properly approached that made this difficult, or poor Ravan, who hated every second she spent talking about anything dealing with Locke, but was too busy dealing with his own unrequited interests to form proper rebuttals.

Then there was Navi, who Marin wouldn't say she was too close with, but sometimes they did spend time together. And while Haven, Locke, and Ravan could bring the oldest Dragneel child to tears, Marin always found it to be the company of her outside guild friends, the girls she hung around with from her own neighborhood, that wrought Navi the most drama.

But Marin felt lied to, and perhaps even the judgmental one herself, as she felt none of this cattiness or side eyes that Haven always proclaimed. No one was being absolutely horrible to one another, bringing about unnecessary drama, like Navi frequently found herself drug into. It felt...different, of course, than hanging out with Kai, as there was a bit of unease bubbling in her stomach the entire time, no longer having her safety blanket of a best friend to fall back on, but that wasn't unbearable.

The girls took Marin with them to a small inlet of water, where they all washed up while a few of the women from the village came to bring them some garments and makeup. Time felt different here, listening to them all giggle and chatter, a bit restless with the night's promised activities. They had Marin dress with them, in the ceremonial attire, and when they all paired off to help with one another's makeup, she found herself once more with the girl they'd eaten with the night before.

The morning was truly on them now, as somehow an hour or so had come to pass, and while he'd somehow been so far from Marin's mind for perhaps the longest amount of time ever, the girl seemed intent on turning their passing conversation onto the guy.

Marin was awkwardly trying to explain that, no, she wasn't really a mage like the others from Fairy Tail, but rather a barmaid, when the girl interrupted her with another probing question.

"But you and Benny," she began though her sentence went nowhere else, just trailed off as she continued to brush blush across Marin's cheek.

"W-Well," Marin tried and she felt her cheeks redden on their own. "We're… He's my friend."

"Just your friend?"

It was the best she could do to nod. It wasn't wholly the truth though, as she considered Kai much more than a friend, but it had never really tipped in that direction for her. At all. She remembered when Locke and Haven first started dating, how annoyed her father got by that development, before turning his ire onto she and Kai. He'd never rightly liked the boy, but now he seemed more intent on keeping him away even more, but Marin had just never…

Felt that way.

About Kai.

Or anyone, really.

Not yet, at least.

She was always kind of afraid that she would eventually feel that way, because it had always felt like a switch that was just flipped in the others. Navi used to think boys were super gross and then one day, bam! They were all she could talk about. Locke literally went from spending every day tussling with Haven and Ravan up at the hall or out on a job to edging somewhere passed thirteen and then only thinking and talking about the girls around Magnolia. And the only interest Haven had in boys for so long had been slamming their skulls into the ground, but then one day she just...felt differently and wanted things she hadn't before.

Marin was kind of afraid of it, honestly. Feeling that way. Liking someone. Whatever. The idea that one day she could go to sleep, feeling comfortable in her friendship with Kai, the only friendship she really had, and then wake up the next day feeling entirely differently about it. She dreaded it, even, right after everyone found out that Locke and Haven were dating. Marin didn't wanna...kiss Kai or be his girlfriend. She just always wanted him to be her friend.

But everyone always seemed so intent that it was going to happen eventually. That it was inevitable. When she was younger, her Aunt Lisanna used to tell her about how when she was her age, all she could think about was marrying Natsu one day, and how she was just as close to him as Marin was Kai, and back then that seemed kinda silly, but it was a real threat then and Marin felt unsure what she would do, when it came upon her.

It didn't though.

Ever.

As the world settled around Haven and Locke's short lived relationship, Marin didn't find herself liking Kai anymore than she already loved him and he seemed too oblivious to the world at large to worry about such things either. They were still just Marin and Kai, how they'd always been Marin and Kai, and there was nothing that could change that.

Until her other aunt, Evergreen, filled his head with another fantastical idea that panicked him just as much as the thought had her, a year prior. When Kai came out to Marin, she felt happy that he'd been able to share something with her, of course, but also somewhat relieved that, clearly, they were just going to be able to skip that hurdle entirely. They could just keep being their oblivious selves, living in the same, safe bubble they had together always. There would be none of that awkward, recalculating phase Locke and Haven had to go through, or even the uneasy breaking up they'd inevitably encountered.

Marin knew she eventually would want to be with someone. She imagined. Maybe. But change was scary and the idea of losing her best constant, Kai, to the uncertainty of a romantic relationship was too much to bear. The romances of her parents and relatives always seemed quite miserable, honestly, even in the happier times, and she'd never want to lose Kai. Girlfriends and boyfriends break up, marriages dissolve, and people get hurt.

But your family, the one that wasn't staked on lust and attraction, they never went away. Ever.

"Yeah," Marin said with a slight nod. "He's my brother. That's all."

The other girl seemed relieved and Marin had this terrible realization that she'd now just created an entire other mess, but she didn't feel like outing Kai in this situation, not when he'd made such a big deal a few months ago about doing it on his own time, and she wasn't sure what to say, ever, at all, Marin felt, in any situation, and this was why she was better behind the bar.

Kai thought Marin looked great though, when he finally found her later that day. He'd run into Erza following his miserable time fishing, his body now far more sore and he thought he was dying, but the swordswoman only shook her head and told him to cheer up; there would be a ceremony that night, after all.

And oh, he knew. He could hardly wait!

He wanted to do that waiting with Marin, honestly, but had some trouble finding her. It was once the girls were all dressed and primped for the time being that he ran into them. He'd been directed that way with a snicker from some of the older guys, but luckily stumbled upon the area following any states of undress. Instead, by the little water inlet, the girls were now being directed by the older women in some sort of dance. Marin, done up like the others and still yet misplaced, stood off to the side, watching closely as she'd been offered a chance to participate that night, should she so choose, but nearly certain she would decide otherwise. Kai laughed loudly though, at the sight of her, and rushed over with his toothy grin.

"You look great!" he championed as Marin only blushed as one of the older women came to shoo him away, citing a no men policy.

It was Kai's turn to blush, just a bit, embarrassed over being reprimanded, but he was quick to nod and walk away. When he glanced back for Marin though, she stayed as the woman held her arm and gave Kai a harsh stare and a firm point back in the direction of the town.

"Go," the woman ordered as Marin gave him something of a wave, "find your cousin. He will show you what men your age do to prepare."

Men.

That made Kai's chest swell once more.

That's right.

He was a man now.

He found Row near his house with some of the other older guys, who were slinging back some breakfast following their time on the boats. They were all seated around one of the guy's fire pits outside of his home, cutting up and drinking, already, so early in the day. This was unusual for the most part, as their duties typically went much further than just handling the boats, but it was a special occasion; and that meant getting drunk as early as possible.

"Got my eyes set on somethin' important tonight," Row snickered to Kai and he nodded, further down the row of huts, where one of the women his age was rather busy with some other ladies, cleaning fish. While the teen girls would be dancing in the ritual that night, most the other women would be cooking while the men drank and set up on the beach. But Kai knew, somehow, exactly the woman his cousin meant as he stared down the row of huts, her far too busy on her task to notice either of their eyes. But Row only elbowed Kai before saying, "Man's gotta grow up sometime."

"Ya act," one of the other guys gathered about grunted through a mouth of some sort of green fruit, "like the woman'll want ya anyways."

But Row only snorted before telling Kai, "See me in a year, huh? Married man by then."

"Been chasin' her for how long?" the other man kept up, but Row ignored him now, looking down at his younger cousin instead.

"There is something I want to show you though," he said. "You and your brother. Before the ceremony tonight."

"Rav- Zach ran off." Kai, who was used to his older brother's disappearances by that point, only shrugged. "But I'll be glad to go."

It helped that Marin was busy, anyways.

They goofed off for awhile though, all the young men, before marching down to the beach to begin preparations. There was some gory slaughtering of animals for the feast that Kai was not so down with, but Row seemed to note that and assign him something much easier. Kai was meant to assist in moving some fire wood to the big pit in the middle of the beach and it was simple work. Except for, well, you know, the fact that he loathed physical activity on top the fact he was already worn out from back to back mornings spent on the waves.

Luckily for him, his cousin pitied this as well and, soon enough, came to save him from the back breaking work. Row let him take a break, to get some water, before taking him on what Kai felt was a highly unnecessary trek into the woods. Well, he did while they were walking. It was once they were stopped and before Row even spoke, honestly, to Kai began to understand.

There was heaviness, that deep into the forest, that he hadn't felt any other place on the coast so far. The air felt hotter and there seemed to be less critters roaming about, as he and his cousin finally came to a stop in a specific

"This," the older man told him as Kai stood back, near the treeline, his face contorting some in recognition, "is where they're buried. All of them. Everyone. There were...to many, to do burial rites for them all. Leader, he had use did a big pit and we just… You don't need to know about all of that, but… They're all in there together, now, Ben. All of them. No matter which tribe they came from, what village. None of it mattered, in the end. And that's what you'll see tonight, during the ceremony. Everything changed over the course of those few days… But it made us stronger. It united us. Again. They didn't die in vain."

Kai though to cry then, which was weird, because he normally put no thought in it. It just came. But unlike like the night before, in Row's hut, he felt no tears prick his eyes and he only took a step forward, without Marin now, not his brother or Erza either, just himself.

He'd often get tearful or upset, when he thought about them a lot. His parents. Or his other cousins, who he'd lost during those hellish few days. The friends whose names no longer even registered in his mind. Forgotten to the times. He'd get so emotional, if he dwelled on it to much, because he always felt so far away from them. All of them. This place. Like some sort of barrier had been erected and he'd never get to the other side again.

But he was here now. And so were they. In some sort of way, at least.

There was a stone...monument or something. It came up to his waist, in the center of the clearing, and when Kai approached it, he saw that the top had been chiseled down into a smooth square, save the engraving on it. Just a set of dates. A beginning, a dash, and an end. Signifying a passage of time that amounted to less than a week, even.

"You were so young," Row sighed. "When it all happened. You're lucky. I… After you and Ravan left, those weeks following… They stay with you. With me. There was so much…"

"I remember." Swallowing, Kai glanced over his shoulder at his cousin. And unlike the night before, he sounded certain. "I do. Those days. Sometimes I don't think I do, but being back here… I'm sorry. That we left you here all alone. Row. I-"

"You didn't leave me all alone, Ben." And he sounded sure of himself, his older cousin did. "I had all I needed, here. Just as you've had all you needed, where you were. You found family again and so I have. It was so...vicious, at times, when we were younger. Between the villages. But we're a true community now. We're all together now. Just like we were always meant to be. I was never lonely; I had many others with me. Were you lonely? In Magnolia?"

He felt bad, Kai did, as he hung his head some and whispered down at the stone, "No. I… You get used to things, I guess."

"That's good. I'm glad. We all are."

Still, he could only shake his head, Kai could, as he tentatively reached a hand out. Grazing it across the engraving on the stone, he whispered, "I just...I always thought if I ever came back, if I ever could come back, it would be as some amazing mage or fisherman or...and I know that they're dead, but somehow, Mama and Papa would see and they'd...they'd be proud of me. But I came back and I'm not anything."

He didn't cry then either, Kai didn't, as he stared with a frown down at the stone. When he heard his cousin approach, he glanced over his shoulder though, letting out a heavy breath as the man rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm proud of you," he assured his cousin. When Kai only nodded, Row grinned. "I know it doesn't mean anything, but-"

"It does! It's just-"

"Your parents are gone, Kai, but they live on in other ways. In other people. In you." His hand shifted then, to pat him on the head instead. "Your brother, that girl you care about, Titania...are they proud of you?" When Kai didn't answer, Row insisted then, "Are you proud of yourself?"

He didn't know. Not really. But when they turned to head back to the village, to grab some lunch and help finish setting up, Kai knew he wanted them to be. Ravan, Marin, Erza. And...himself too.

Kai felt like he worked the whole day, but it was a better kind than what he would put in up at the bar. Or when he was struggling out in the boats. The men all laughed as they prepared the beach for the ceremony and the partying that would follow and it felt so good, to be a part of something so big again. A community, like his cousin said. Instead of a splintering sect of an ever growing guild.

Erza came by to commend him once, the Leader faithfully by her side, and Kai was still kind of feeling bad for her, since Ravan had blown up on her the night before, so he kept his quips over the situation to himself. It was hard, but he was learning.

"You still haven't seen your brother?" she asked eventually and when Kai shook his head, the woman only sighed.

"I could send someone out to look for him," Alec suggested to the swordswoman, but no.

"He's a man," she sighed as they left Kai to being one as well, walking off together again. "Let him do as he wishes."

She'd had a hell of a morning even without the children's endless streams of attention. She'd hoped, once more, to get Marin alone, to trick her into agreeing to train under her, but the girl had disappeared as well as Ravan, and though she was blessed with not having to entertain Kai for the day, Erza was cursed with her hanger on.

Now, much like she'd explained to Ravan in the night before, this all was something of a joke. Or at least she thought. Though Erza could play oblivious better than anyone (as well as not play most of the time), she could tell that there was something of an attraction between she and Alec. And it was hardly one-sided. He was...an attractive man. Fit. And interesting. The tales he had, that involved revitalizing the ravaged coastline in just about a decade would be fascinating.

And yet he was hardly the biggest temptation she'd ever faced. Or even ranking in the top ten. While the woman was serious enough about most things in her life, she found that she took her relationship to the highest level. A vow, even if unspoken, was meant to be kept and treasured. She had never faltered, in all of her years of only getting to see Jellal on the rarest of occasions, and that wouldn't change for one of the random men that saw it fit to chase her. Especially not one she imagined she might have to see again, given the boys would eventually need to return home once more.

She felt as if she should let the man down easy already, but at the same time, well…

It was joke. Between she and the boys. But now Ravan was upset for some reason and Alec clearly wasn't in on it. Erza rarely second guessed a decision, but this return to the beginning was feeling like a mistake, honestly, from Ravan's point of view. But when she observed Kai, working so hard with the other guys, after toiling the past two mornings, she knew that she'd done the right thing. Bringing them back here.

Hadn't she?

Just before sunset, most everyone in the village met down on the beach, to officially begin the celebration. There was lots of sizzling meats and sweet treats, as well as drinking and laughter. There were drums and some other instruments, on one side of the beach, prepping for the ceremony, which filled the who coastline with a bit of a back beat. It felt like a good time to most everyone involved.

Kai finally got to meet back up with Marin, who he again complimented, but she was trying to tell him something he couldn't catch what she was saying over all the commotion. Before he could understand, another girl was rushing up, the one from the night before, to grab his arm and whisk him away. As Marin stared after them with something of regret, Row, who Kai had been hanging around still, only snickered.

"And to think" he offered the despondent Marin, "I thought I was getting lucky."

But she didn't have long to worry about him. Erza had seen her and used the girl as her excuse to escape Alec once more. Walking with Marin a bit away from the party, she took her somewhere quiet to speak.

"Have you seen Ravan?" she asked with a frown. "I am trying not to grow concerned, but no one has since last night and I just… He thinks that he still knows this place, but it no longer knows him. If I only knew he was safe-"

"I haven't," she admitted with a frown. "But his friend said that something happened, when they were out, and-"

"I thought as much," the swordswoman sighed and she didn't seem so certain then, like she had the past few days, with her hard-handed treatment of Ravan's recent troubles. Bringing a hand up to her face, she said, "I thought that he would wish to take part in his own home's ceremony, but it...did seem to upset him, when Alec mentioned they moved it because of me. And I fear that they might mention me in it, which would only further upset him."

"It's not your fault, Erza," Marin offered with a frown. "I bet Ravan just wanted to get away because, well, you know he doesn't like people very much. Or big crowds of him. He hardly ever goes to the Winter Festival. I bet he's just hiding. He does that a lot."

Erza nodded, but didn't speak again as she looked out over the setting sun instead and Marin rarely felt badly for the woman, there was hardly ever a need, because she was always so well put together and strong, but much like a few months back, in the hospital waiting room, the teen felt the same realization of how put on the woman's strength really was.

Rather than the village fading into darkness, that night it was lit brighter than the sun by numerous torches and, of course, the massive bonfire in the center of the beach. There were people dancing and children running in and out of the crowd, adding to the atmosphere. Marin found Kai once the ceremony began, a strange look on his face. She had no time to question him on what his end of things had resulted in, however, as soon enough, the beat of the drums felt more intent and Leader Alec was calling for them all to find quiet down; it was time for the ceremony to begin.

Marin and Kai fell into the sand with some of the other teens, and most everyone was chanting now, along with the beat of the drum, words Marin couldn't quite pick up, but that made Kai's stomach knot as he nodded along, just on the edge of a memory. It all came to an abrupt stop though, when Alec held his hand high and it felt so still, as everyone fell silent and the last drum rang out, only the crackling of the fire to be heard.

"As you're all quite aware," Alec began as he stood then, on one side of the bonfire, opposite where Kai and Marin sat, making him seem as if he were coming from the flames himself, "we have moved the Fete of Cryo up this year, but I hardly think the gods will take it as a slight when they consider the person we made this extra measure for."

At his nod over at where Erza stood off to the side, her armor reflecting the many light sources well, most all the villagers cheered for her and Kai felt himself do the same, glad to have a reason to, for once. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her this way, as an outsider. Someone who'd been saved or rescued by her, not on the immensely personal level he was at currently, but rather the distant, she's a hero come to save a village affect. Kai was a bystander now, someone grateful, but separated from her. Had he never left his village, the last memory he'd ever have of the woman would be something like this, her standing far away, far too important to worry about a little boy like him, being congratulated by someone in power and never even seen him. Any of them, really. They were just people and she was so far above them. They would never forget this moment and she would have a thousand more in her lifetime.

It was humbling. Or it should have been. Instead, it just made Kai's heart swell more because he wasn't nobody to Erza; he was one of the most important people in her life (he liked to pretend the most, but was comfortable in knowing he put up a good fight at least, in the ranking) and she did see him. Not just on the day in and day out, but literally, she saw him, for everything that he was. And she cared about him. More than anyone else in his life.

So yeah, Kai cheered for her along with the others and he was happy to. Glad to finally have the chance to. When Alec held his hand for silence once more, Kai was even kinda disappointed with how quickly the moment had slipped away.

"Still," the man insisted to his followers as tossed something into the flames then, something that made them spring up, more magnificent and less controlled it felt, "least us mere mortals forget, the gods deserve their own due. It was not many days following the Fete of Cryo that something...awful climbed out of that sea and nearly devoured us all. And yet here we stand, stronger than ever. One can thank the great Titania, yes, but imagine not believing that Cryo had his own hands in our fate."

There was something going on with the flames now. Seriously something going on. Alec tossed something else into them and they looked like they were...morphing, somehow, and Kai wondered if he were the only one who could see it.

"The gods lived in darkness," Alec was going on and in the flames, Kai felt like he could see a rough sight of a few people seated around a crude table, but only if he didn't focus too hard, "because what does a god need to see? He sees, without his eyes, just as one knows all, without a single thought. They saw no need for light and thus, there was no life. Until one day, as gods do, they began to bet one another on more and more outrageous dares until, finally, someone dared Cryo to light himself on fire. Fully engulf himself in flames."

The figures in the fire were moving now, in time with the story, and Kai could remember now, the story, yeah, how could he forget? All of this?

"This hardly felt like a challenge at all, to an immortal being," Alec was going on then as they all sat in rapt wonder, even those who had to have the entire thing memorized themselves. "A little pain and nothing more. But there was a secret, among the gods. Not too secret I suppose. Cryo had begun to spend explicit time the goddess Elara, which wasn't wholly a bad thing. Gods have needs as well."

When he said this, some of the men made loud rambunctious noises and Kai placed Row easily, standing nearby with a drink in one hand and the other tossed around that woman he was so intent on getting with before.

"Elara was perhaps not the most beautiful, of all the goddesses," Alec continued, "but surely a gem among the others. Even in the darkness, there was something...alluring about it. Captivating. All the gods wanted her for their own, but she seemed only intent on spending time with Cryo. This was enraging to some of the gods and they thought of a plan to keep the two apart; they would douse Cryo in fuel that would burn for all of eternity and, once he set himself on fire, it could never be extinguished. So they tricked him, as they covered him in the fuel, and when he was set aflame, they all laughed and sneered.

"Cryo thought that this was par for the course, them taking enjoyment out of feat, but when the pain of the flame became too much and he went to dunk himself in a nearby body of water, he found the flames would not go out; rather, it felt as if they only burned more intensely. He cried out for his fellow gods, but not one came to his aid and as he continue to splash around in the water, the fire became more and more intense, to the point he was all burned alive and yet immortal, a crisp of a man, once a god and now burned beyond recognition.

"But something was happening. To the others. They were used to small flames and fires, who controls the elements other than the gods? But what was happening to Cryo, the intensity of his flames, the spread across his masculine form...it was illuminating and jarring and they could see now, as their eyes were burning out of their own skulls from the intensity, the brilliance of his flame. Though their intent had only been to make him unattractive to a goddess, they had instead turned Cryo into a ball of flame that lit up all of the heavens and blinded them. What does a god need to see? He sees without sight, but now sight was being thrust upon them and they had no choice, though the guilt hung heavy in their hearts, to cast Cryo out of the heavens, if only to save their own burning and shame."

The fire danced now, in the flames before them, and Kai was so enthralled that he didn't notice it, not at all, when Marin slowly slipped away from him and into the night surrounding them.

"It was when Cryo was cast out of the heavens that he begun to wallow in his own pain." Alec sounded much more solemn now. "He would circle outside of them, the heaves, considering his own fate in all of this, not understanding why this had begun. But it was through this, the path that he took, his burning and bright brilliant flames giving the one thing missing on the mortal ground below him; light. And life. Bred from the fire burning him beyond death.

"While this was happening, in the heavens, there was a big uproar with the goddesses. To know that the men went to such lengths, just for Elara caused jealousy among them, and though the gods had lost one of their brothers in hopes of winning her favor, the goddess chose none of them either. With her sisters turned against her and the gods turning bitter over their mistake, Elara chose to cast herself out as well, from the heavens and down to where beloved now watched as his blight gave way to the most flawed creature of all; humans. All of us. Living only because of his pain.

"Elara chased after Cryo. She still does. Day and night. Far too embarrassed by his current state, his permanent state, he chooses to stay just out of her reached, leaving only enough light to let her glimmer in his wake, still so perfect for one another and yet unable to be together. And for their sacrifice, we are bore. This why, above all the other gods in the land, we celebrate Cryo, the Giver of Life and the Great Sacrificer, allowing the miracle of each and every one of our lives at the detriment of his own."

Some people cheered then, quite loudly and Alec laughed as, still, he called out over them.

"Yet," he challenged, "though there is never a day without our sun, have you ever seen a night without a moon? Glimmering full and white above us? Or even one where the moon is illuminated just as brightly as if she were...perhaps...standing before the sun? Of all the misfortune in this world, maybe we don't need to mourn for Cryo and Elara. Perhaps the lovers are together more than we realize."

Kai turned to look to Marin then, to question her on if she noticed it as well, the tricks in the flames, but she wasn't there. As he started to rise to find her though, the drum beats began once more and he hadn't noticed either, Kai didn't, that the girls Marin had spent the day with had disappeared as well, but they were easier to find. They came out from the shadows behind where the drums and other instruments were set up, dancing their way to before the bonfire and it was nice, it was great, until Kai didn't count Marin among them.

Then he started getting really worried.

But it had nothing to do with him, the reason that the girl disappeared into the night. She wasn't even wholly sure what it was, honestly. She never rightly liked parties or crowds and maybe it just got to be too much. Or maybe all the talks of gods and religion made her think of her mother and miss home even more and, yes, she felt too old to get that sad, just from being distant from her parents, but something called her away.

The water.

Marin went further down the beach, until she could only just see it there, behind her now, the fire and the party. The music and rhythm would catch up with her eventually, but Marin made it to the shore first, slipping out of her sandals first to let her feet feel the cool sand beneath them before walking further out, where only foam graced her and then deeper, deeper into the water, and it had called for her, earlier, that morning, but she'd let herself get caught up in a ritual, a celebration, that wasn't even her own.

She felt poorly, Marin did, at least mentally as she continued further out into the water, for getting the ceremonial garbs that had been given to her soaking wet, but she couldn't help it. This is what she'd wanted to do, the entire time she was here. Playing out in the water with Kai the day before had been fun, yes, but it was lacking and it wasn't the same, and she was beginning to want things that she didn't understand anymore.

At all.

Deeper and deeper she waded into the ocean before, eventually, she was swimming, and she knew it was unsafe. Wasn't it? To go out into the water alone, at night? Even if it wasn't so much for her, given water very much so was a part of her now, she knew that Erza and Kai would worry about her. Of course they would. And if they saw her sandals there…

But she wanted to go further and Marin so rarely listened to it; that little voice that told you all of the wrong things, the selfish, indulgent things.

Since they were young, her parents always joked between her and her sister that Haven had gotten all of their bad, rebellious qualities, while Marin had gotten the meek. Haven broke all the rules, just because she could, and Marin followed them, as closely as she could, just because she knew you were supposed to. Marin had always tried very hard to do everything perfectly, do everything you were meant to do, told to do, but…

She wanted to be in the waves. More than she wanted to go back to the party. Or the hammock. To tell Kai and Erza she wasn't feeling well or she wanted to go home. Because did she want to go home? Did she really? Or was she missing something else instead? Something she'd only recently realized she needed?

The moon shone so brightly down on the water that night and Marin, eventually, rested on her back, blinking up at it as she floated further and further out to sea. She worried that she would get too far out, lose her bearings or strength to swim back, that even if she couldn't drown, if this was her element and it couldn't kill her, that it would at least turn against her, and what if she did sink? All the way to the bottom of the ocean? In the dark? And it wasn't warm at all, but rather just a cold, unforgiving pit?

"He's in the cave."

Marin said this aloud, only to herself, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she found herself not looking longingly back at shore, at where the fire was distantly burning, but rather further away, down the coastline, where the caves jutted out into the water.

Of course he was.

It was probably because this was where she was, the day before, when Kai told her about it, that Marin came to this realization. About where Ravan was hiding out. The caves. Obviously.

She didn't know what overcame her, probably how upset she'd seen Erza, earlier in the evening over the whole thing, but Marin knew suddenly why she'd been drug out there. Why she'd gone all this way. Kai was her brother and he was being negligent, once again, in reining in his, so it was going to fall to her.

Obviously.

Her chest was burning and her arms and legs would hate her in the morning, but Marin swam it, the whole way, using her lacrima a bit to shoot water from her extremities and give her an extra boost, there at the end, but she made it to the rocky, jagged caverns and could see, closer now, a feint light stemming from one of them.

She scared the shit out of him, to say the least. There Ravan was, one minute laying on his back, headphones in and watching the shadows his tiny fire cast on the cave wall above him, and then suddenly a huge shadow formed and there was someone in the cave with him.

As he sprang up though, tugging his headphones from his ears, he saw it was just Marin, her white hair no longer as nice as it had been, when the other kind girls in the village helped her style it, as now it hung waterlogged around her face, her nice skirt and blouse drooping as she surfaced at the edge of the landing. The majority of the cave,, honestly, was still water, but Ravan lay on the rough, rocky part that stuck out from the backing, and he only frowned as he moved to take Marin's hand and help her onto it as well.

They just stared at one another for a moment, each prone to long lapses of silence when it came to awkward situations.

"You're missing the ceremony," Marin finally managed to get out, a bit breathless and cold, honestly. "Ravan." Then, trying to lighten the mood, she questioned, "Or should I call you Zach here?"

He blinked at her, still confused before dryly responding, "You sound like your sister."

Marin blushed, never once in her life having heard this, before saying, "I don't think Haven would be so nice about it, having to come and find you."

"She wouldn't," he told Marin simply, "come to find me."

"W-Well-"

"Is that what you did, Marin? Come to find me?"

She wasn't sure. But when she seemed to nervous to answer him, Ravan only sighed loudly.

"Well, you did. Congrats. Now scram."

"Ravan-"

"If I wanted to be at the damn ceremony, Marin-"

"It's more than that." As he slammed back down on the hard ground once more, she only came to stand over him, toying with her fingers. "Rik told me that you guys got into a fight-"

"We didn't fight."

"Ravan-"

He'd had his bandanna up, around his mouth, even when he was alone, but tugged it down then as he frowned over at her. His gaze was enough to stop whatever she had to say next and, eventually, Marin moved to awkwardly take a seat as well. Catching her shiver out of the corner of his eye though, Ravan only took to grumbling some.

"Sit closer to the fire," he ordered with a frown. "If you get sick, your stupid father will blame me. I got enough on my plate."

She did as he said and then they sat there, together around a fire again, like they had only a few weeks back, at Erza's house. But this was supposed to be different. Because he was supposed to be better now and Kai wasn't avoiding him; Kai just didn't care about him, in those moments, as he was instead completely distracted by their former home. Marin didn't have some big speech that she'd worked up or prepared to give Ravan, about how he and his brother should make up or that he should think of others for once. While she did feel sorry for Erza over it all, Marin didn't think it was anywhere near her place to comment on the swordswoman's relationship with her student.

At all.

So she didn't say anything. At all. This time she just sat there, cold, wet, and miserable, while Ravan frowned into the fire and sulked.

"I didn't fight with Rik. Or Thomas. Or anyone." Ravan didn't even glance at the girl. "We… After we got the supplies he needed, we were going to go out drinking and I don't...do that shit, not away from the hall, but I just...wanted away from you guys. You, Erza, and Kai. No offense."

She found it hard to take any. She frequently wanted away from Erza as well, honestly. Not to mention Kai…

"But anyways," Ravan went on and he was pulling bandanna back up then, Marin noticed, out of the corner of her eyes, his voice more muffled now, competing with the crackling fire, crashing waves, and very distantly, the beating of drums. "We were, uh, well… It's stupid, but Rik was hanging around some girls and...you really don't need to hear all this, but I just-"

"I work in a bar." Marin swallowed then with a frown. Glancing at Ravan, she didn't feel like herself at all. "Remember?"

Ravan only sighed before nodding and continuing on.

"I was talking to this girl and I just...I felt it." His hand dropped from adjusting his bandanna and to his chest instead, clutching then as he glared into the flames. "My lacrima...pulsed or whatever and I… Something...blue shot up my arm and I… I can't control whatever the fuck this lacrima is doing to me. I thought I was in check- I am. More than I was before. But I hurt that girl- Well, I think it scared her, more than it hurt her, and then I, uh, threw a bit fit, I guess, and made Rik drive us back and…Erza was on my nerves, when I got back, and was bothering me, and I just thought that… Never mind. You wouldn't-"

"I do get it. Remember? We both have lacrimas and-"

"Marin-"

"Everything that you feel-"

"You can't," he told her bluntly, and he wasn't yelling at her, like he usually did all the others; he just sounded bored and trite, "understand this part, okay? My lacrima's different than yours. It's different than everything. I can feel it now, every single thing I lacked. I… I can become stronger than every other person in our damn guild, Marin. I know I can. It's more than just more magic inside of me, the power that it gave me… If I can learn to control it, then there's nothing that can stop me."

They shared a look then, in the dimly lit cave, but just as quickly Marin was glancing down at herself, holding her hands palms up and studying them with a perplexed gaze.

"I do feel that way though, Ravan," she told him softly, admitting it maybe for the first time to herself. "Not as strongly, maybe, but I… I know that I have real power inside of me. And, maybe together-"

"I can't help you, Marin."

Frowning then, she looked over at him again. "But you said-"

"I lied." He shook his head some. "I can't even control myself. I'm not going to be able to discover myself while walking you through the baby steps."

"B-But I can learn! Very quickly. I have been, haven't I? If you think that I'm holding you back-"

"Erza," he said then and when he patted at his chest, it was over his heart, "got me this far. To where I am now. Without here… But she can't get me pass this lacrima shit, I gotta do that on my own. But you… She can get you to where she got me. Right now. And that's what you need. Someone who can take you to this level. If you get here- When you get here, to where I am, when you out grow Erza… But right now, you just have to get here first. Alright? And she'll take you there. And further. You just...have to ask. She'll help anyone who asks." Then his face contorted and she couldn't see it, beneath his bandanna, but she thought that perhaps he smiled. "Especially you."

Marin thought that she could swim back on her own, but Ravan didn't want her to get back in the water so weak. He meant what he said to Rik the day before; Marin was his Master's daughter and...his best friend's little sister. He would never let anything happen to her. Not if he could help it.

The problem was, however, that to scale back over the jagged rocks, Marin would need her shoes, which she neglected to bring, or suffer the consequences. And after slicing her first bit of flesh, drawing some gushing red blood against her silvery skin, Ravan only groaned before gathering her up in his arms and carrying her the rest of the way.

It was super awkward and Marin protested, but he could think of no other way to get her safely back to shore. He really had Erza to thank now, for all that conditioning and endurance training, because while Marin might be the lightest person Ravan knew, her featherweight was still that; weight, and it was tiring.

"Hey! Here you guys are!"

Kai had been trailing up and down the beach for a good hour, it felt like, maybe, calling out for Marin (and he could pretend Ravan as well, considering the guy was there), a torch in one hand. When he made them out, Marin in Ravan's arms, coming down the beach, he ran for them (well at first thought they were monsters or bandits and almost ran and hid) with a cry of joy.

"I got so scared when I couldn't find you," Kai told Marin as, now before someone else (and definitely safe from the rocks), Ravan awkwardly set her back down. Marin blushed as Kai moved to hug her, but he stopped short anyways, when he noticed how wet she still was.

"Uh, were you guys swimming?" he asked then as Ravan looked off and Marin only stared to explain, sort of, but it didn't matter anyways. Just as quickly, Kai was taking her hand and excitedly explaining as he led the pair back to the party that they were just in time.

And they were.

At each Fete of Cryo in the recent years, given the timing of the events, Alec typically told and honored the lives that were lost during the event that took Kai and Ravan's parents, as well as a massive amount of others. On the actual dates that the event took place, there was a much more solemn ceremony and laying of flowers, out in the forest, but today, given Cryo represented life for them, was as good as any to celebrate the lives of those who'd lost theirs.

He was in the middle of telling the story, Alec was, recounting in horrific detail as others still gathered around the bonfire, some of the younger children huddled against their parents, either out of fear of the vicious sea monster their leader described or the parents desire to hold their children close, in memory of when they weren't by their parents or when when they weren't able to do the same, for the children they had lost that day. Though this was a yearly occurrence for the others, neither Kai nor Ravan had spoken much about those dark days in years and hearing it retold…

Kai gripped Marin's hand as they reached the edge of the crowd, and she glanced up at him in support while Ravan only stood behind them, adjusting his bandanna once more.

But that wasn't what Kai was worried about missing. At all. No. They were there just in time for her to show her face. Erza Scarlet. Titania Erza. The Queen of the Fairies. She felt descended of the gods herself, Alec was saying then as Erza found herself less interested in his glowing praises (and it was hard to get her not to overly indulge in those), her gaze instead becoming fixed on the edge of the crowd, where she could see them together, the three of them.

"Where would we be," Alec questioned all the others to their rousing cheers and applause, "without Titania Erza?"

Where would they be?

Without her?

She nodded in her approval, played up to the crowd, but as Alec shifted more into speaking on the unifying power of tragedy, how, in it's wake, the three villages overcame their differences, just like three gods he named that she'd never heard of, that she'd want to learn more of, but she left that to Marin and Kai, who stood still, listening in interest once more, and instead bowed out herself now.

"Where have you been? Ravan?"

"Why," he groaned as she followed up from the beach, like he somehow he knew she would, and towards the empty village, "can't you just leave me alone?"

"I have tried leaving you alone. And what have you done?"

"What have I done, Erza? Huh? That's so bad?"

"Well… It was really rude to miss the ceremony."

"You're missing the ceremony! And since when you are you on level with a god, huh? Cyro gives us life and Elara teaches us love." He felt weird, Ravan did, because he didn't speak of his gods anymore. At all. They were different, in the cities and in-land villages. The coasts worshiped different, at times harsher gods, and he'd never forgotten them. Kai had, because was basically from the city now, no matter how hard he tried to be a fisherman, but Ravan was old enough to remember. Ravan was old enough to revere. Even what he didn't believe in. Turning to face the woman now, Ravan tugged down his bandanna as he questioned as well, "What have you given us? Taught us? That if you're big and powerful then us little people should grovel at your feet and worship you? Is that what you want? That's what you're getting. That's what you've done. Is that what you want, Erza?"

"You know," she told him darkly as she stopped down, right before him, arms falling over his chest, "that I only came here for you and your brother. I thought that it would help you to come back here. If it has not, then I am sorry. I worry about you, Ravan, and-"

"Then stop," he ordered simply and he felt that same blue shock shoot up his arm, "worrying about me. I'm grown now, Erza. We've already had this fight. I'm not your dumb student anymore, alright? Stop worrying about me and tyring to help me-"

"I don't do it because you're y student, Ravan, I do it because..."

"Because why?"

"Ravan-"

"Say it."

"Because I love you." She wouldn't look at him though. "You and your brother. Do not act as if you do not know. The two of you are far more than just guildmates to me. I… I will never have anyone in my life like the two of you and I just… I'm worried, Ravan, about how the things that I've done, that I've tried to do, for you, that perhaps they were not… I tried my hardest, raising you how I thought I should, but-"

"Then trust," he cut her off, "me. Erza. Trust me. That I can do this. This...mage, wizard shit. Trust me that I have it from here and that I'll figure it out. Trust that I won't fuck it all up. Trust me when I say that this lacrima wasn't the wrong thing for me. And whatever I decide to do with my life will be okay. If you raised me, then have faith in what you did. Stop worrying. I'm going to be okay."

Her eyes glistened, under the light of the moon, and Ravan rolled his own as the woman took a deep breath.

"Yes, well," she sighed. "I...do trust you. Ravan. Or I try to. And I am not so sure I can ever stop fully worrying about you, of course, but I understand what you mean. It is only...it will be so hard, not to have-"

"Talk to Marin." He had his bag slung over his shoulder and adjusted one of the straps then, looking away as well. "I think she might have something to ask you finally."

Erza smiled then, for him, for the first time in a bit and Ravan didn't return it, but he didn't look so glum either.

"You should get back," he told her then. "Erza. They're gonna wanna praise you all night. I know your ego can't stand to miss that."

"You should come to," she suggested. "This is your home and your traditions. You-"

"No." He shook his head. "They're not anymore. I've...learned to keep the gods in my own way. This is for you. And Kai." It took a lot then, from him, not to grimace as he suggested to the woman, "Go enjoy it."

The woman nodded at him then with a slight bow and Ravan's chest didn't ache this time, as he went to fall into the hammock and drift off. It definitely didn't feel light, but it didn't feel heavy either and somehow, it was much easier to drift off to sleep, the distant sounds of the music and laughter close to him and yet separate, as it had been since he fled from it all those years prior.


	5. Chapter 5

There were times in life when you had to make a choice. Kai found in his that this was actually pretty rare. For the most part, day in and day out, he did the same things over and over again. Wake up, eat, halfway deal with guild duties, goof off with Marin, eat some more, sleep, and then do it all again. Peppered through out there were minor choices, of course. Should they eat at the hall? With her parents? Or Erza? Did they wanna go hang out at Ever and Elf's place? Ajax wanted them to let him go down to the river to fish with him, should they let him?

Four more days would come and pass following the Fete of Cryo and each one was filled with Kai assuring anyone that he met that this was the place for him, the coast was where he belonged, and though Marin would make a face at each and every mention, Erza stayed silent whenever she caught wind of it, certain that soon enough, it would all resolve itself.

And of course it did.

Because they called him a man there, on the island, and he called himself one, even, now, Kai did, but he was still only a boy, a little one it felt like, at times, and it was with a bit of a frown, that last night, as Row and him sat up in his hut, talking about the future, that Kai had to break the news to him.

"I, uh, don't think I can actually stay here though," the teen told his older cousin with a bit of a frown. "Row."

"Yeah." He looked down into his drink then and he looked so much like Kai's father, sometimes, that it really made the boy's chest ache. Looking up at him, Row smiled openly, and remarked, "But it would be nice to think about, wouldn't it?"

Sure.

Maybe.

But the coast was so far away from home. Magnolia. And while he liked to imagine a life away from the place, one day, maybe, he couldn't just yet. He wasn't ready to fall asleep somewhere other than the safety of Erza Scarlet's home or beside Marin. He didn't wanna work for his own meals or even have to work seriously at all yet, honestly! Coming to the coast, at that time, would mean not just calling himself a man, but truly being one, and Kai still had some growing up to do before he got there.

"You're not cut out for it," Row told him with a sigh and Kai was crushed, but only momentarily, as the man quickly followed up with, "It's too rural for you. Rugged. Out here. There's better stretches of coast, more like your home now. But instead of wizard guilds, there's fishing guilds. If you're really thinkin' about moving out somewhere like this, I'd look into a place like that."

"Thanks," Kai muttered with a bit of a wry grin. "I'll remember that."

"But don't ever forget," the older guy insisted then with a heavy gaze, "that you have a home here too. You left the bay, but it won't ever leave you."

He laughed then, Row did, and patted Kai on the back rather heavily, but he had years of dealing with the same from the likes of Elfman, and only laughed along with the man.

But that didn't mean that it wasn't hard to say goodbye.

Marin found herself walking the beach one last time, early the morning of their departure. Erza didn't make Kai get up that morning, to do the boats one last time, instead letting him relive what it was like, to wake up lazily to distant sounds of men, working the shoreline, and other children playing and singing while their mothers tries to force some breakfast on them. The sounds would be nostalgic for him, welcoming, maybe, or maybe more haunting in what he now knew for certain would be their last chorus, but for Marin they meant little. Smells of strong brewed coffee, grumbling, hungover complaints, and slinging out breakfast orders reminded her of what mornings meant. Now. And she was gearing up to get back to it.

She wouldn't get to go back to the coast, not even Hargeon, for a long while the teen imagined. While others her age in the guild spent these precious years exploring Fiore in full, she was honing her own craft to near perfection. She liked it in the bar, both behind it and filtering around it. This was her one vacation for a good while. There wouldn't be any time for another.

So as she walked the beach that morning at sunrise, she decided to take it all in, every ounce of it, the sights and smells. The sounds and all the different people. She wasn't so sure if she, personally, would ever find her way back here, but she imagined she'd always remember how kind they all were to her.

It was while Marin was out walking though that she spotted Erza doing the same. Not training, but just walking, the village's leader beside her. Blushing, Marin was quick to turn the other way, walking opposite to them now, in hopes of not running into whatever awkward entanglement the swordswoman was now having to slash her way out of.

"I hope that you enjoyed your time here, in our village," Alec told her as the pair came to a stop, right at the edge of the tide, staring out over the waves, tinted pink in the sunrise. "Titania."

"Erza," she corrected finally. After all these days, she'd had her fill of being praised...for the time being. "It's what my friends call me."

"Friends," he repeated with a nod. "Friends visit one another, you know."

She shrugged. "There's not much to Magnolia."

"No?"

"No." Glancing about, she remarked, "I can't imagine choosing to leave this behind for the dreary town I come from."

"Two little boys did," he replied simply. "Once upon a time."

"Little boys make poor mistakes. Men don't."

"Seems to have turned out well for them."

"I typically find it my duty, after all," she told him then, "to correct wrongs I stumble upon."

He was looking more to her then, than the ocean, as he said, "You, and the two of them, are always welcome to visit here. They will always have a home and you will always have our hospitality."

Turning then, she took his hand when it was outstretched and they ended on a shake, much the same as they had all those years ago, when she felt poorly, leaving a village in such a state, but knowing her presence would only get in the way. Now to see it, now to experience it...she was glad to have answered the request.

For many reasons.

"Alec," she remarked in parting and she smiled some, when he released her hand.

"Erza."

It would be another hour before Kai awoke, and then a whole other one as he packed and said his goodbyes before he was ready to leave once more. He was sniffling some, though he tried to hide it, and Marin only stood by his side, ready to comfort and assure when necessary. Row, as well as some of his other friends and distant family, all claimed to plan on writing him, and Erza assured anyone that they were always welcome to visit, but given the distance, Kai only had hopes for the former. And even then, they were slim. It had been a long time since he was a part of anyone's life here and though he himself wished to keep them all in his hearts and hoped to remember to write, or even visit now, he had a sinking feeling that eventually, this would all just become a memory again and after only a few short correspondences, would fade away again.

Erza made him take a bunch of photos, before they left, and he gave one of himself to Row, and he planned to tape them up in he and Ravan's room, if his brother let him. Or maybe put them somewhere else, where he could frequently glance at them and remember. So he wouldn't forget again.

He never wanted to forget again.

His brother had been largely absent the past few days, not hanging around his former friends and even avoided Kai and Marin. Erza only remarked to give him space and allow him to enjoy his time here as he chose, but Kai was kind of surprised when Ravan presented him with a present, at the train station that afternoon.

He'd sobbed as they'd left, Kai had, and Ravan had joined them at the last minute, bag over his shoulder and not really offering anything up to any of the people calling out their farewells. This left a bad taste in Marin's mouth, as she felt like everyone in the village was more than genuine in their perceived reacceptance of he and his brother, but knew it better than her place to make a comment. Kai gave enough of a goodbye to them all anyways, as his brother stood stoic beside, bandanna not only hiding his facial scaring, but also any emotion.

The walk felt so much different, leaving than going. And Kai kept glancing over his shoulder, much as he had when he fled in the dead of night, as a little boy, sniffling some as he tried to stop his sobs as Marin only gripped his hand tightly.

It was at the first train station though, as they had a few minutes wait, that Erza and Marin both went off to the bathroom and the brothers were left alone. Kai was wiping away his final tears as they dried up while Ravan only moved to take his bag off his back and begin rifling through.

"Here," he remarked, pulling out an old, well worn journal from his bag. "I got this for you."

"What is it?" Interest piqued, Kai quickly moved to flick it open. Inside seemed to be handwritten stories, many of them, as well as crude accompanying drawings. "Ravan?"

Shrugging some, the older guy looked off as he said, "You're real shameful, Kai. How can the gods bless you if you don't know anything about them?"

"This is a book of-"

"Yeah. All the stories and… I dunno if I believe in all that and I know that you probably don't, 'cause you don't know a lot about it, but… You were right. When you told me that it's my fault. That you don't know anyting about home. About...Mom and Dad." Ravan still refused to look at him. "This will help you understand a lot. And probably jog your memory some."

"Is it… Did you steal this?"

"No! Idiot." Huffing some, Ravan tossed his arms over his chest as he said, "It's not the official one. It's a copy. A handwritten copy though, so it's kinda valuable, I guess. I got it from…our leader."

"How?" Kai asked in wonder and Ravan took to smirking beneath his bandanna.

"I made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

But before Kai could question him on that, Erza and Marin were back and, well, he was far more interested in showing them his gift.

On the train, Ravan sat along again, but no one blamed him as Kai was way more annoying this time around. He kept flipping through the book and talking about different fables and he really seemed like he wanted to understand the meaning in them, though he quite clearly was missing the mark, and Marin assured him that she'd go over the book too, if he'd let her, and help him wherever he stumbled.

It had kinda went without saying though.

They stopped for dinner all together, before the last train into Magnolia, and it wasn't hard to realize that not only was their adventure coming to an end, but the four of them journeying together as well. For a long while. This was hardly a hard thing to reconcile for Ravan or Erza, who teamed up and departed from many people in their time as mages, but for Kai and Marin, who hardly got to leave the safety of home, it felt like a pretty big deal.

Erza would be back to taking some pretty hefty jobs when they returned and Ravan was gearing up to get back out there, as a real mage again, a solo one, and would probably be gone just as often. Though the four of them might have a dinner together again in the near future, it would be different, just caught between jobs, and this ending of their vacation felt significant for some reason.

"I forgot to ask you," Marin remarked over their meal as they sat out on a cafe patio, "after the ceremony, so much was going on, but… What did you talk about? With that girl? When she led you off?"

"Oh. That." Kai made a face and even Ravan and Erza seemed interested now, not fully understanding what the pair were speaking on. "Well, she led me away and then talked about how you told her that you and I weren't dating and she'd heard me talk about staying and that she always liked me, like a lot, when we were kids, and thought that was pretty cool to know, cause Ravan always told me no one liked me, at all-"

"It was true," Ravan griped at the glares of Marin and Erza.

"-but then she, well, I guess I must've… She kissed me." He looked striken. "And it was super awkward and then I told her that I wasn't really into girls and then she got really awkward and ran off and, well… I just thought she liked me! Not that she, you know, liked me, but… And it was really kinda lame cause, well…I always thought my first kiss would be special. Not awkward."

"Then you are clearly," Erza remarked with a frown, "inexperienced in first kisses."

But at Kai's deflating, Marin only offered, "Maybe it doesn't count. Kai. Maybe it only counts when it's someone you want it to."

"It was really quick," he remarked. "And there wasn't even any tongue, so-"

"Kai," Ravan complained with a frown as Marin only went back to her food.

Erza only sighed though, picking at her meal as she said, "A vacation without any romance is quite boring. I thought at least one of you would fall into your teenage angst and require my guidance, in the ways of heart in such a setting, but-"

"Don't give up yet," Ravan remarked with a glint in his eyes that had been absent in recent months.

Erza knew it well and questioned suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"You did say that I could invite any of my friends back from the coast that I wanted, didn't you?"

"You invited a girl back?" Her suspicion was quickly changing to elation. It had been her dream for quite some while for the boys to bring literally any sort of partner back to the house for dinner, but both seemed not only extremely unlucky in love, but also wise enough (so far) to keep it to themselves when they weren't.

"No." He reached across the table then, to where Kai had set his new present. Lifting the book into his hands, Ravan smirked as he said, "I had to offer your dear friend Alec something he just couldn't turn down for this one, Erza."

"You did not."

"He said that you told him there was nothing in Magnolia to visit, but I assured him between the Cathedral and the guidlhall-"

"You better be here to show him around," she retorted simply, "when he comes, because-"

"Maybe he'll forget." Ravan gave Kai his book back. "Or maybe Jellal will happen to be around when he comes and the three of you can have a nice chat."

"Ravan-"

"It's not so fun to have your life manipulated from the shadows, is it," he remarked as he set the book back down, "Erza?"

This put quite the damper on dinner and, though there was some humor to be found in it, it was probably for the better that it was so late when they climbed onto the last train.

Erza sat alone now, and the kids together, with Kai falling asleep sat up against a window, while Marin sat on his other side, staring across at Ravan.

"You didn't really do that, did you?" she asked with something of a blush on the swordswoman's behalf. "Invite your leader to Erza's? Just to get back at her?"

"Of course not." He had his bandanna down and made a face at the girl. "I paid him for the supplies to make another copy and then some. It wasn't a hard deal to make. Just costly. But...it was worth it."

Smiling over at the sleeping Kai, Marin was sure to nod. As she was about to respond though, Ravan only moved to take out his headphones while reminding her of something else.

"Aren't you," he questioned as he set them on his ears, "supposed to be asking someone something? About training?"

Blushing again, Marin nodded and she felt awkward, as she got up and went over to where Erza was sitting all alone, on the mostly empty train. It was night out and the train wasn't too well lit, but rather than an eeriness, it almost felt like a comfort. Marin found that between Ravan and Erza, she and Kai rarely had much to fear.

"Uh, Erza?" she questioned softly before sitting down. The woman had been gazing out the window, but sat to attention at the girl's voice, nodding for her to take a seat. Doing so, Marin found it difficult to look at the woman as she said, "There's something...I kinda wanna ask you."

"Of course." Oh, Erza had planned for this. For a good long while. "You can never know an answer, until you make your request known."

"W-Well, I just… I don't think that Ravan's going to really help me with...and I just thought… I'm not very good at magic, and I don't really think I want to be that good, but maybe I do, and I just, for right now, I thought… Maybe you could help me at least learn the basic things?" She looked off. "I-I mean, my father and mother taught me some, when I first got my lacrima, but I hardly know any of it anymore and-"

"Yes," she cut the girl's nervous rambling off finally. "Marin. I will assist you where I can. And...I do have quite the in with a water mage, after all. And a few dragon slayers."

"Oh, no, I don't think I'll really need-"

"No," Erza agreed. "You won't. These next few months, it will take a lot to even get you in any sort of fighting shape."

"F-Fighting isn't really what I-"

"But it is nice to have options," the scarlet woman finished with a knowing nod. "A plan for the future. If you wish to pursue it. For now, between your job up at the bar and my own journeying, I will come up with a regimen for you to follow. To get your strength up. Which I will check in with, of course."

"Of course," Marin whispered softly.

"And in a few monthsl..possibly even a year," Erza told her with a bright grin, "spells. So many spells."

And Marin was nervous, just from being around the woman, though her words did little to dispel that as well, but for some reason, slowly, she found herself smiling as well, softly.

She was sure that this would only end in disaster. Disappointment. That she wouldn't be competent or suited for magic, just as she'd feared her entire life, but maybe...maybe…

Maybe.

It was late when they got in, and the bar was just closing up. Since Erza kind of wanted to at least see what had gone on in her absence, as well as get a crack at any job postings that hadn't been snatched yet, she and the boys accompanied Marin there.

The place was getting ready to close down for the night and last call was upon the sleepy patrons. Some raised their glasses to their returned S-Class wizard, but Marin only raced right by them and over to the bar.

Her mother had known this was the day she was to return and had made certain to have the last shift, so she could be there when she did. Her Aunt Lisanna was behind the bar as well, but it was her mother Marin rushed around it to toss her arms around.

Giggling softly, Mirajane asked her, "Did you have a good time?"

"The best!" Kai answered for her as he came to get his hug and attention as well. "Mrs. Master. It was so great! I got to see my cousin Row and there was a big ceremony and everyone there believes that I'm a super mega awesome mage around here, so if you ever get someone from Shadesbay come in, be sure to talk me up, okay?"

Lisanna was giggling at him, as she always did, while Mirajane, still holding tightly to her youngest with one arm, did reach with the other to gently pat the boy on the head.

There was someone else though, seated at the bar, that had the interest of the children. Laxus was rare to hang around so late, or at least out on the floor as opposed to his office, but he was there then, waiting on his baby's return as well. As Marin came over to hug him as well and assure him that she'd been well taken care of on her time away, Laxus' eyes only fell somewhere else.

He came in with the others, Ravan did, hesitantly, but obviously. While the others had raised a drink in recognition of Erza, it was their heads that they raised now, in the presence of Ravan. Anyone sensitive in the world of magic could feel it on him now, even those who hadn't heard the story of his unfortunate lacrima implant. It hung off him now, an overabundance of magical energy, and got glances and stares in the hall.

He hadn't taken a job since this all began and, when he went over to the board with Erza, she only shook her head at him.

"You were injured, Ravan. Gravely."

Making a face, he said, "I thought we already went over how you're not going to run my life anymore?"

"I'm not trying to." Frowning at him, she pointed then, over at the bar. "But he is." And he didn't have to glance over there to know who's heavy eyes were following him the most. "Go speak to your master about taking jobs again. It will be his call if you're prepared or not."

"Erza, I really don't think-"

"Go."

Ugh.

Marin was still being hugged quite tightly and pretty lengthy by her mother when he approached the bar, but Mirajane only smiled brightly and called out a hello to Ravan while Kai frowned at the way Laxus rose without a word.

"Office," he grumbled to the much younger man and it was never a good thing for Ravan, when he found himself in there.

This was no difference.

There were no pleasantries exchanged between the two men. Neither sat either. Laxus just walked around his desk, picking out a cigar, while Ravan stood awkwardly by, watching.

"They didn't kick your ass then, I take it?" he sneered finally, over at the boy. "When you got there? Huh? Speak up. And take that damn bandanna off your face."

But Ravan didn't. Do either. Just continued to stare at the man. Growing agitated, Laxus growled at him before grabbing a bottle of his desk and taking a shot of it as well.

"You think you're tough now, don't ya? 'cause you got a little lacrima?" Laxus laughed, but it was without humor, as he shook his head. "Those ain't even special around here. And neither are you. You do dumb shit like that again, you won't be so lucky. 'cause that's what you are, you get it? Lucky. Moron. How many more chances you think you're gonna get, huh? Before you fuck it all up so bad it can't be fixed? You can't just try again or restart- It's just over. I don't fucking like ya, wouldda felt much better your ass got left back in your little shit village, but take a warnin', huh?" And he looked at him then, Laxus did, a glare in his scarred eye. "Figure your fuckin' baggage out. Before it gets you killed. Or worse." Laxus cut his cigar then, before sticking it in his mouth and slamming down into his chair. "Now get the fuck out."

There wasn't anything on the board for Ravan that night. He didn't even check. He just wanted to get back home, to his own bed, and sleep this all off.

Erza took off though. Or at least she would, bright and early the next morning, while Kai only groaned through his morning routine before eventually slugging his way down to the guildhall where Marin was already falling back into her typical duties. She greeted her best friend and was a bit surprised to see his brother with him, but only smiled all the same.

Ravan's return to the bar was short lived, however, as it was as he stood over at the request bar, trying now to find a job, any job, that would get him right back out on the road, when someone else who'd been absent for a bit came in.

It used to not be that big of a deal, to see Locke and Navi together, but somehow it seemed rare and odd, without their third friend around, and Ravan only refused to look over at them, even when he felt the pair's eyes each at least graze over his back.

"You're back!" was what Locke said to Marin instead though, smiling at her and Kai, who was still not working and instead laying with his head against the bartop, brightly. "Hasn't been the same without you."

"I heard you went on vacation," Navi remarked with a smile and she looked far better than she had, last time Marin had seen her, in her home, when she and her mother went to visit the other teen. "Did you have fun?"

Nodding, Marin said, "It wasn't anything like what you guys do, but it kinda...felt like an adventure. Sort of. But-"

"All adventures count, Marin," Locke assured her with an easy nod as Navi made a face at Kai beginning to snore. As Ravan went to Kinana, who was working as the server that morning, to fill his request than risk approaching the bar, Locke only made sure not even to glance over his way a second time as he told the girl, "No matter how big or small."

* * *

**That's it for this one. I have a couple different directions that I could go as far as what portion of the timeline gets some more fleshing out, but I gotta say, I'm kinda in the mood for some Mira and Laxus stuff, some continuation of the ending, involving some reconciliation on their part? Either way, I was a bit scared of this story and Power and Regret, with consideration to how they might affect the timeline if you read them in their canonical order, but I feel like they added more than they take away, which was the intention. Either way, I liked this one and hoped you guys did as well. **


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